LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 













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SHORT TALKS 



ON 



CHARACTER BUILDING. 



BY 



G. T. HOWERTON, M. S., 

GRADUATE OF AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHRENOLOGY. FOUNDER OF THE PHKENO- 
NORMAL COOLSGE, BEUNA VISTA, MISS. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



NEW Y( 

FOWLER & WEL^S COMPANY, 

27 East 21st Street. 

It 2Ut 



o 






Copyright, 1892. 
Fowler & Wells Co. 



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DEDICATION. 

Mother, Father, Teacher, and Student, are interested in 

CHARACTER BUILDING. To the studeot, who is 

striving with self and desiring to be something in life; to 

the teacher, who is sowing the good seeds; to the mother, 

who is watering them with her tears; to the father, who is 

watching with prayerful interest the result, this little book 

is lovingly dedicated by 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 

" Sow a Thought, reap an Idea; sow an Idea, reap a 
Word; sow a Word, reap an Act; sow an Act, reap a Habit; 
sow a Habit, reap a Destiny/' 



And look before you ere you leap, 
For as you sow j* are like to reap. 

— Butler. 



Whatsoever a man soweth (of) that shall he also reap. 

—Bible. 



TO THE READER. 

This little book is not offered to you asa " literary " 
production. It contains some thoughts hastily thrown to- 
gether between pressing duties; therefore there has not 
been as much attention given to their expression as would 
otherwise. The language is simple and plain, and the 
book is written to be understood by those who are not edu- 
cated. 

The basis of the thoughts is that excellent system of 
Mental Philosophy known as Phrenology, yet there is no 
attempt made to teach that most interesting and useful 
science. But it is the hope of the Author that the reading 
of these pages may lead you to see a beauty in Phre- 
nology, and to pursue it further. If you desire to give 
more attention to it, he commends to you those excellent 
authors to whom he is indebted for the basic ideas of 
much contained herein, viz: Spurzheim, Combe, the Fowl- 
ers, and Sizer, whose works are published by the publishers 
of this little volume. 

You can not spend your time better than in the pursuit 
of Phrenology. Such study is the best way to obey that 
old saw, " Know Thyself;" and it will enable you, also, to 
know much of the other fellow. If you are a teacher, the 
value of the knowledge given by Phrenology is simply in- 
estimable. 

G. T. H. 

March, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 

INTRODUCTORY —CHARACTER— What Is It? . 9-12 

I. — The Three Factors in Character . 13-17 

II.— Keep Thyself Pure 18-24 

III. — Get Out of Your Own Light . . 25-31 

IV. — Science of Education .... 32-38 

V. — The Utility of Phrenology . . . 39-46 

VI. — The Perceptives, and How to Educate 

Them 47-56 

VII.— Hope 57-60 

VIII. — Conscience 61-65 

IX. — Dignity — Self-Esteem — Pride —Arrogance 66-69 

X. — Cash Against Credit .... 70-76 

XI. — Ambition — Love of Approbation — Vanity 77-81 

XII. — Firmness — Obstinacy — Stubbornness . . 82-84 

XIII. — Veneration — Worship — Is There a God? 85-89 

XIV.— Our Social Side 90-96 

XV.— Kindness 97-101 

XVI.— Spirituality 102-107 

XVII. — Immortality — Its Scientific Proof . . 108-112 

XVIII. — Christian Character — Its Foundation 113-120 

XIX.— Trying to Ride Two Horses . . . 121-124 

XX.— Thlnking 125-127 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 

XXL— Beading 128-133 

XXII.— Talking 134-140 

XXIII.— Two Things and a Woman .... 141-144 

XXIV. — Inhabitiveness — Love of Home . . 145-150 

XXV. — Truth and Truthfulness .... 151-157 

XXVI. — Marriage— Proper Time .... 158-163 

XXVII. — Which Will You Take? — A Question for 

Young Men 164-170 

XXVIII.— Shall I Take Htm? — A Question for 

Young Women 171-175 

XXIX.— Yokes 176-182 

XXX. — Take His Garment That is Surety for 

a Stranger 183-188 

XXXL— Tobacco— Why Not Use It? . . . 189-201 

XXXII. — Why Not Help a Man to Rise? . . 202-207 

XXXIIL— The Old Way and the New . . . 208-211 

XXXIV. — Health — Its Importance and Neglect . 212-214 

XXXV.— Some Health Directions . . . 215-223 

XXXVI. — Principles of Phrenology . . . 224 



INTRODUCTORY. 

CHARACTEK—WHAT IS IT? 

Believing there is a deficiency in the courses of study 
of most of our colleges and schools, and that that shortage 
leaves young men and young women without the most 
valuable thing in this life, I have planned for a series of 
44 talks " to you on such subjects as I think will help you 
over the difficulty which I have in mind. I, therefore, ask 
your attention in this " talk," to the subject of which I 
desire to speak in what follows. It is one in which each 
one of you is most intensely interested. J speak of a 
theme the highest, and noblest that can engage human 
thought about things in this life. 1 speak of that without 
which you can not be men and women. Character! What 
is it? I have seen young men leave home for college, pure, 
and return in a few years polluted from head to foot; I 
have seen girls made worse by a 3 r ear's attendance at some 
school. They came home thinking less of the old home 
and the old mother. Smarter girls, maybe, yet " faster " 
girls — girls that knew more of the world and its ways than 
their mothers. Boys leave home afraid to use " curse 
words," and return adepts in the art of swearing. Young 
men go away with reverence for God and sacred things, 
and return home with " free-thought " ideas, and full of 
infidelity that it takes years of contact with the world to 
rid them of. Is this building character? I think you will 
agree with me that there is a deficit somewhere, and I am 
sure I have found the place in the failure of our schools to 
produce noble character. Character should be placed 
above knowledge, above riches, above honor, above any 



10 SHORT TALKS. 

and all things earthly. "What is character? Lend me 
your thoughts while we all think on this subject for a few 
minutes. 

1. Character is not an inheritance. 

Many things are handed down from father to son. 
Strength may be, mentality may be, predisposition to good 
or bad may be; but a full, well-rounded character can not 
be inherited. Qualities that will help or hinder in its 
formation may be inherited, but character never. 

2. Character can not he given by any one. 

Much as the father or mother on the death-bed might 
desire to hand over to a son or daughter a finished char- 
acter, it can not be done. Much as teachers would like to 
give their pupils good character, they can not do it. It can 
not be given away or received as a present. 

3. Character is not what we think of ourselves. 

If it were, there would be many more perfect characters 
than there are. Many of us are something in our own 
estimation. Self is not often a good judge of self. We 
would often think less of ourselves if we saw ourselves as 
others do. 

4. Character is not what others think of us. 

Do not be deceived in this. Many men stand high in 
the estimation of the world and are without character. 
What others think of us is reputation, and is valuable, 
especially when founded on a good character; but do not 
take this for character. 

Then, what is it? I answer, a structure built by our 
own hands. It is our own. We can claim it for our own 
work. If it is good, we can look to it with pride and satis- 
faction and say, see what I have builded. If it is bad, the 
ruin is our own individual work, and God will hold us re- 
sponsible, not our teachers or our parents. Do you get 
this? " We are the architects of our own fortunes," and 
well it is so. Otherwise many a builder would be scolded. 
Yes, this grand and awful work of character building is in 



INTRODUCTORY. 11 

your own hands, for yourself and not another. Will you 
build a magnificent structure of which you and your friends 
will some day be proud, or will you heap together an un- 
sightly ruin that will bring only disappointment, regret 
and shame? Eemember, you are the builder. You have 
a mind; it is your own, and each faculty of it is a work- 
man in this business of character building, and you are re- 
sponsible for the result. In your mind is the faculty of 
love for the opposite sex, and this is a workman; in your 
mind is the faculty, love of home, and this is a workman; 
love of country, patriotism, is at work; hope is trying to 
do her part; reverence is helping; worship is engaged. 
Will you direct these workmen so that you will have a 
beautiful house? Judgment must control. Study your- 
self, and learn to direct these workmen. But workmen 
must have material. Where is it? What is it? Here it 
is. Each thought, each emotion, each desire, each feel- 
ing, each word, each deed, is a stone in this building. If 
you want a strong, beautiful, useful, lasting house, look 
well to the material. See that nothing unsound goes into 
it, especially about the foundation. If you want character, 
guard the material. Watch your thoughts. These are 
the foundation of your building. Make them pure, clean, 
and right, and you have a good start. But, you say, Can 1 
do this? Most certainly. You can make of yourself just 
what you want. Others may help or hinder, but with, or 
in spite of them, you can build. You can be your own 
master, and the man or woman who is, will never need or 
submit to any other. 

Again, each word is a stone in this building. Can I not 
tell character from words? Do they not betray us? Do I 
not know the character of the man who is talking, though 
he is in the dark? Most certainly. Words build char- 
acter. Keep them right, and you are on the highway to 
fine success in this building. 

And last I mention deeds as stones in this building. 



12 SHORT TALKS. 

"Love not in word, but in deed/' Build not in words 
only, but with the solid rocks of work. Look well to your 
doings. 

But now the question is, "Are you going to build ?" 
Have you made up your minds to do this thing even now? 
This is the first step. No house was ever finished that 
was not begun in the determination of some mind to build. 
Let this, my dear young friends, be the thing that is set- 
tled now: " I will, by the help of my good friends, by the 
help of my teachers, by the help of my parents, by the 
help of my God, build a magnificent structure of which I 
and all my helpers will be proud. " 



L— THE THREE FACTORS IN CHARACTER. 

It is most true that we are the architects of our own 
characters. Let us not forget this. But, then, in a build- 
ing there are other factors besides the architect. So in 
character. We build, but other things help or hinder. 

The three grand factors in character to which I wish to 
call your attention are, (1) Birth, (2) Education, (3) 
Regeneration. 

1. On the first of these much depends; so much that we 
dare not say how much; so much that the greatest in- 
vestigator has not begun to make clear the height, the 
depth, the weight, the magnitude of birth. 

Many turn from the subject as one shrouded in mystery, 
and one altogether beyond our reach. Many others seem 
to think it not one of the things which it is legitimate for 
men and women to study. But it surely is. God governs 
us, our birth, our generation, by laws; and it is our duty 
to study these laws and learn to obey them. Their viola- 
tion brings punishment, and this punishment rests most 
heavily on those who in themselves are innocent. God 
does visit the iniquity of the father upon the childreu to 
the third and fourth generation. He always has, and al- 
ways will. It must be so. This is not a world of chance. 
Causes produce effects. Effects do not happen so. All is 
order, law and perfect harmony. 

By learning these laws of generation and birth men are 
enabled to improve, and do improve, all kinds of live 
stock. In fact, more study and attention are given to the 
mating and breeding of domestic animals than to man, the 
most perfect and valuable of all animals. This ought not 
to be. We are of " more value than many sparrows." 

(13) 



14 SHORT TALKS. 

Man is worth more than horses, dogs and pigs, and should 
receive as much more attention, as he is more valuable. 

Why not study human life from its beginning, and learn 
to make the most of it? It will be done. Heredity must 
engage the attention of thinking men and women. Such 
an all-important subject must be investigated. The more 
we study the drink habit, and try to rid ourselves of this 
awful curse of civilization, the more clearly do we see the 
mighty effects of heredity. So the W. C. T. U., and 
all the organizations laboring for the freedom of our rum" 
cursed citizenship, should learn and teach the laws of he- 
redity. The more the doctors look into the causes of 
disease, the greater influence do they see exerted by pre-natal 
conditions and dispositions of parents^ So the doctors 
must learn and teach heredity if they want to keep us 
well. The more the political economist studies govern- 
ment, and works for " the greatest good to the greatest 
number/' the more does he see our governmental happi- 
ness depend on heredity. The real reformer must strike 
at the root, and study heredity. The educator worthy of 
the name is interested in heredity, and must learn some- 
thing of its laws. But above all must the intelligent 
parent feel a deep interest in the laws of heredity. What 
a responsibility inheres in parentage! To give the world a 
son or daughter better than self, is to bless it. To leave 
behind a progeny less strong, hardy, enduring and power- 
ful, physically and mentally, is to fail in duty. 

God has put into our hands great powers and correspond- 
ing responsibilities in this thing. Will we not be wise, 
learn our duty and perform it? I must believe that right 
birth is the greatest earthly blessing. Human beings are 
born, not made. Let the boy have a right birth and he 
can do the rest. Let his birth be a curse instead of a 
blessing, and what can he do? 

Pre-natal conditions, then, determine the powers, the 
limits, the earthly destiny. The fountain can not rise 



THE THREE FACTORS IN CHARACTER 15 

above its source. " The reed shaken by the wind " can 
not be the hardy shrub, the shrub a giant tree. Powers 
are granted and. conferred in generation and birth, not in 
education or evolution. 

2. Education is not understood. 

Intelligent people still believe that getting knowledge is 
the only process of education. In fact they believe that 
the knowledge got is education. They still speak of the 
qualifications of the teacher as " knowledge and the power 
to impart it. " Intelligent parents do not look upon them- 
selves and the associations and every-day environments of 
their children as educators. They depend almost wholly 
on the schools. And what shall we say of the schools? 
What do they know of human beings? They know 
science, language, mathematics, literature, music, art; but 
do they know children? 

Education can not give, grant, bestow, or confer power. 
It can only develop, lead out what has been given in gen- 
eration and birth; and not until educators fully compre- 
hend this, and are able to know, when the child is presented 
for education, just what powers have been given in birth, 
will we have correct educational systems. At present we 
are a long way from perfection in this matter. Yet prog- 
ress is making, and improvements are coming on apace. 
Educators are learning more about their pupils. As 
knowledge increases this must be so. Yet not until all 
teachers study and learn to understand Human Science — 
Physiology and Phrenology — can they really begin to com- 
prehend the work to be done, the methods to be employed, 
the systems to be adopted. When Human Science is un- 
derstood, education can do much, very much more than it 
can now for its pupils; but even then it can not make men 
men. It can only do what can be done with the material 
given. 

3. Regeneration is a fact, whatever may be the teach- 
ings of churches and councils, founders of " churches/ ' 



16 SHORT TALKS. 

and leaders of the religious world. No fact is better at- 
tested. Thousands of witnesses all down the ages testify 
to the fact of a renewed, regenerated life — in other words, 
a New Life. This New Life means something, is a some- 
thing. " It is more than life to live." Life is more than 
the mere breath we draw. Life is a real, substantia] thing, 
a real substance. How else could it be? When God gives 
Life He gives something. And the New Life received in 
regeneration is the gift of God. " He that believeth in 
the Son hath everlasting life." " I give unto them eternal 
life." It may be wonderful, and beyond our comprehen- 
sion, that God would give the poor, weak, fallen, lost 
creature New Life, but this does not argue against it. 
Many things we do not understand, few things we do. 
We can comprehend this giving of a New Life as easily 
and as perfectly as we can the having of Life at all. Yet 
it seems that few of our divines understand sufficient of 
this to instruct us in the subject. They look for a New 
Life, but do not claim to have it here and now. They 
pray for life in " the world to come," but ignore the hav- 
ing of a New Life now. They pray, "save us when we 
come to die," but claim not salvation now. 

The Bible truth, the scientific truth, of a New Life here 
and now would be worth more to fallen man. Let him 
know that he may have life, more life, life abundantly, a 
New Life, now in this present world, and he will seek it 
more earnestly, long for it with a far greater desire, depend 
on it more implicitly. Let fallen man know that he may 
have New Life put into him, that he may indeed become 
as the little child, and you offer him something of which 
he may take hold. And this is just what occurs in regen- 
eration. The new birth gives a real, substantial entity, a 
New Life indeed. And this is the gift of God. " The 
gift of God is eternal Life, through our L>rd Jesus 
Christ." Somehow God comes down into us, and becomes 
a part of us, takes up his abode with us, gives us divine 



THE THREE FACTORS IN" CHARACTER. 1? 

life, immortal life, a New Life. Balzac says truly: " God 
is the Author; men are ouly players. These grand pieces 
which are played on earth have been composed in heaven." 
And Longfellow, " Life is the gift of God, and is divine." 

Nothing short of this could do for man, for character, 
what regeneration does. It must be a something, an en- 
tity, which gets hold of fallen, lost, sinful, degraded, de- 
serted man, that can make the rogue honest, the liar 
truthful, the drunkard sober, the scold gentle, the sinful 
pure. 

Man's coming into possession of this New Life depends 
alone upon himself. God gives it; man receives it. In 
this process nothing can come between man and God. 
Nothing can make man take the gift; nothing can hinder 
or withhold it. No priest, prophet, Church or Ordinance, 
can stand between God and man in this thing. Man 
alone and of himself is responsible to God for his conduct 
in this as in all other things. Others can give him the op- 
portunity, can carry the light to him, can offer him life, 
the New Life, from God, but none can force it on him, or 
prevent his accepting it. 

Let this fact make us the more earnest in our search for 
life. Let us know and always remember that it is our- 
selves who must live or die. " I came that you might 
have life, and have it more abundantly." 



II.— KEEP THYSELF PURE. 

To the pure all things are pure. 

— Shelley. 

The question is, Can we do it? Nature seems to answer, 
Yes. You behold a pure stream of water. Wheuce does 
it come? From the hill above. Has it always been pure? 

To answer the 
question, think of 
the town on the 
hill. The silver 
stream that now 
forms the spring 
was ouce in the 
scavengers of the 
city on the hill. 
But in obedience 
to the command 
'* Keep thyself 
' it comes 



pure, 



forth sparkling 
with beauty and 
sweetness. Behold 
the fruit as it hangs 
ripening and blush- 
ing on the stem. 
How pure, sweet 
and clean. Will 
you follow the roots 
and rootlets of that fruit-tree as they go down into the very 
uncleanest substance imaginable? It may be that they get 
their food from animal matter which is a stench in our nos- 

(18) 




Fig. 1.— PURE. 



KEEP THYSELF PURE. 



19 



trils. Yet in obedience to the command " Keep thyself 
pure/' this same uncleanness is made fit food for a king's 
table. See the rose as she sits on her stem, queen of flow- 
ers, inviting you by her fragrance and wooing you by her 
beauty. The very matter now so beautiful in her petals, 
and so sweet in her stamens, was, only a few days gone, 
an unsightly heap in the back yard. By obeying the same 
command, it has been transformed into a " thing of 
beauty and a joy forever. " 

All this of inanimate objects. Is man lower or less 
powerful? Can he not surpass the vegetable in self-pres- 
ervation? If God has given them 
power to obey this divine law, has He 
not granted man equal ability? We 
are forced to answer affirmatively. Man 
surpasses all God's creation in poten- 
tiality — angels excepted. His mental 
and spiritual endowment is not for his 
degeneracy. God wills and intends for 
man to go high, yet He grants him the 
privilege to sink low. Young man, 
young woman, you can make of your- 
self just whatever you wish, for God is 
engaged to help you. What duties and 
responsibilities this thought places be- 
fore you! God not only wills and expects, but requires 
the best use of your talent. Then it is with you. Do you 
desire purity that shall be continually approximating toward 
that of God himself? If so, you can have it. Do you will 
to fall below all God's creation? If so, you can do it. Re- 
member the power is within you to make of yourself just 
what you want. 

What does thyself mean? Do you understand that the 
command is to keep the body clean and pure? That is in- 
deed necessary, and a thing worthy of much consideration; 
but the body is not the thing referred to in this command. 




Fig. 2.— IMPURE. 



20 SHORT TALKS. 

Thyself, thine own inner self, the thing that makes the 
man, the mind, the soul, is what is meant. The body is 
only the house in which we live; our selfhood is behind and 
within this body. But the house in which we live should 
be kept clean and pure, that it may be a worthy home for 
this self. It were a pity to compel a pure, clean person 
to occupy dirty, filthy rooms. We judge much of the 
occupant by the house in which he lives: so we judge 
character, self, from the body. Then let both receive our 
careful attention; but in this 1 ask you to consider how 
you may keep self clean. Having learned how it may be 
done, 1 intreat you to set about doing it. 

1. Clean thoughts. 

"As a man thinketh, so he is. The thoughts of the 
righteous are right; the thoughts of the wicked are an 
abomination." There is the starting place, the thoughts. 
Keep thy thoughts right. Whatever is, began in thought. 
Before God made man He thought about it. He said, " Let 
us make man/' reasoning and thinking about the intended 
creation. Man has never made anything without thought. 
Our modern conveniences, our great inventions, are all 
thought products. Then thought is the source, the fount- 
ain-head. To have a pure, sweet, clean stream, you must 
look to its source. Keep that clean, and much of the work 
is done; let that remain foul, and you work in vain at 
cleansing the stream. Control your thoughts, and your 
life is safe, your character secure. " Can I do it?" you 
say. Yes. Whatever you will, you can do. Do you wish 
to control them? Then do it. Xot by stopping all 
thought: you can not do that. Here is the remedy, given 
by the author of our text: " Whatsoever things are true? 
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are 
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be 
any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things." 
Two things of the same kind can not occupy the same 



.KEEP THYSELF PURE. 21 

place at the same time. Sure, thoughts are tilings; so you 
may drive out the unclean thought, the evil thought, the 
wicked thought, the soul-defiling thought by the clean 
thought, the good thought, the pure thought, the thought 
which builds true, pure, good, honorable, worthy character. 
Think no evil by always thinking good. Will you do it? 
Will you do as did the Psalmist when he said, " I thought 
on my ways and turned?" 

2. Clean ivords. 

Next to clean thoughts, and as a product, come clean 
words. You will have no trouble here if you succeed with 
the first; but a few words to those who do not wholly suc- 
ceed with controlling the thoughts. A thought put into 
words is crystalized, is rooted, is set, is fixed, is become a 
power for good or evil. The Good Book says, " Death and 
life are in the power of the tongue. The tongue of the 
just is as choice silver. The tongue of the wise is health. 
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life. Whoso keepeth his 
tongue keepeth his soul. The tongue is a devouring fire. 
Keep thy tongue from evil." Can we be guarded enough 
with so powerful a weapon, a weapon loaded at both ends; 
loaded for good from a pure heart and clean thoughts; 
loaded for evil from a wicked heart and unclean thoughts? 
Words not only tell thoughts, but produce thoughts. 
Think a little evil thought of some one, give it the wings 
of words, and it will produce other little evil thoughts. 
Give not shape to your little evil thought in words, and it 
does not grow, does not beget more, but may die and 
trouble you no more. " Of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh," and the speaking makes it more 
abundant. Think some good of a neighbor, think of doing 
him some good, and go and tell some one, and you return 
more determined to do it, ten times more in real earnest. 
Likewise think evil and give it tongue, and you are more 
set in your wicked ways. " 111 deeds are doubled with an 
evil word." Then, shall our words influence us, or shall 



22 SHORT TALKS. 

we influence them? Shall they control us, or shall we 
control them? 

TVords, however, are things, and the man who accords 
To his language the license to outrage his soul, 
Is controlled by the words he disdains lo control. 

— Owen Meredith. 

Shelley has well said, " We know not what we do when 
we speak words. " We know not what we do to ourselves, 
we know not what we do to others, we know not what in- 
fluence they may bear on lives yet unborn; we can not 
estimate it. Yet one thing we do know: if the words be 
good and pure and clean, the effect will be so too; but if 
the words are impure, unclean, vile and wicked, so will be 
the effect. My dear youth, the greatest compliment I 
could pay a friend is to say of him I never heard him 
speak a word which he could not have said in the presence 
of his pure, sweet mother; the greatest good I can wish 
you is that such may be truthfully said of you. 

3. Clean deeds. 

" Love not in tongue, but in deed. Obey not in word 
only, but in deed. By their fruits — works, deeds — ye 
shall know them." 

" Honor is purchased by deeds we do; 
Honor is not won until some honorable deed is done." 

Socrates says, " Such as thy words are, such will thy affec- 
tions be esteemed; and such will thy deeds as thy affec- 
tions, and such thy life as thy deeds. " Deeds, then, are 
things more alive, more potent for good or ill, more last- 
ing, more effective on character than aught else. A 
man may talk and talk, but if he be not a doer of things 
he is not much. This is an age of talk. There is much 
talk of many things, and much that does not tell, that has 
no effect. But deeds tell. The best preaching our minis- 
ters can do is good deeds. The greatest thing we can do 
for any good cause is to work for it. Not that we must 



KEEP THYSELF, PURE. 23 

not talk for it, but that our effort must not stop with talk. 
Deeds form character; deeds make up a full life; deeds will 
be rewarded in eternity. Deeds can not be undone. What 
is done is done. Would you not have a thing so, then you 
must not do it. Deeds make our abiding, present life, 
and they will determine our future life. Baily says, 

"' We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

" The proof of the pudding is in the eating." The proof 
of all thoughts, all words, is the deeds. Then if the deed 
be wrong, how great that wrong. It is known and read 
of all men. If we should think twice before speaking, 
how earnestly ought we to ponder our intended deeds? 
Again, how much one deed mars a character, a life. Could 
some men put away forever from their memories and from 
the knowledge of the world one deed, how they could rise. 
But it is done, and yielding to its influence on character, 
they give way to others. Shall we shape our deeds, or 
shall they shape us? Shall we make the deeds what 
we want them, or shall they make us? George Eliot says, 
" Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our 
deeds. " But there is a time when we can determine our 
deeds, when we can be our masters. Shall we take ad- 
vantage of it, and make every deed determine us to better 
deeds? 

4. Clean company. 

If your thoughts are clean, if your words are clean, and 
if your deeds are clean, you will seek and have clean com- 
pany. No other will satisfy you. Yet here is danger, 
great danger. " He that would make a great fire would 
kindle it with a straw. " Young man, young woman, he 
who would destroy you will trap you with company if you 
do not guard. The only true rule I can give you is, never 



24 SHORT TALKS. 

to be in doubt about your company. You must kuow, 
absolutely and certainly know, the company you are iu, 
the company you keep. If there is a fear or a doubt, or a 
lack of knowledge, wait and see. Otherwise you may have 
to say with Shakespeare's character, " Company, villain- 
ous compauy, hath been the spoil of me." 




Eh 

o 



o 

O 
O 

£-1 

o 



111.— GET OUT OF YOUR OWN LTGHT. 

Christ said when they came out to arrest Him, " This 
is your hour, and the power of Darkness." Darkness has 
held sway at all times in the history of the world, to a 
greater or less degree. Whether it is now letting up 
any, and the world is growing wiser and more enlightened, 
is a question. Be this as it may, there are always many 
men in the dark. In our picture we have one in the dark, 
because he is in his own light, paradoxical as it may seem. 
You see he is trying to read. He is not doing much good 
at it. What he reads is not well read. He reads with 
much pain to his eyes. He reads very slowly. The poor 
fellow is in misery, because he is in his own light; and the 
worst thing about it is he does not know whence comes the 
darkness. While he is in a strait there are those in the 
picture who are enjoying it. See those men behind the 
screen. Those kinds of men laugh to see one in his own 
light. If they speak to him about it they will advise him 
to stay there, assuring him that he is all right. They will, 
however, talk differently to themselves, to one another. 
There is another individual that is well pleased with the 
man's being in his own light. You see him at the win- 
dow. You recognize him as the Prince of the Power of 
Darkness. No one rejoices more, when a man gets in the 
dark, than Satan. No one will or can do more to keep 
him there. He brings all his powers to bear on the poor 
unfortunate, all the time assuring him that he is in the 
broad light of day. Satan is never more angry than when 
a man gets out of his own light, out of all darkness, and 
chooses to walk in the light, " even as He is in the light." 
To assist you in answering the question to-day, " Am 1 
in my own light?" I submit the following: 

(25> 



26 SHORT TALKS. 

1. J young person in school ivlw does not properly em- 
ploy his time is in his own light. 

He may not see it at the time, and may think just to 
the contrary. This is pretty good evidence that he is in 
his own light. But he will see it, and when he does there 
will be nothing but one long regret that he stood so long- 
in his own light. Young man, youug lady, stop and 
think; you to whom opportunities are given by the kind- 
ness of loving parents. If you do not employ every mo- 
ment to the very best advantage, are you not sadly in your 
own light? If you do not now see the infinite value of time, 
take my word for it that you are in your own light, and 
get out as soon as you can. 

2. Those toho spend their leisure hours at sociables, 
games, etc., are in their oivn light. 

Social education is necessary; recreation is necessary ; 
but neither must have too much of our time. These in- 
nocent parties, these interesting games, are dangerous. Let 
us guard well our footsteps as we tread this way. Many, 
many precious hours have been flung away on these. And 
they are so iunocent and so harmless that there lies the 
danger. We are in our own light. Every one says there 
is no barm in them, and the best people in the town 
attend. But there is harm. Whatever robs me of my 
time is harm. I know a man, a good man, who will sit 
on the streets and play games from sun-up to sun-down 
when he ought to be at his business. I have seen young 
persons get so full of socials and " parties " that they were 
fit for nothing else for weeks. Precious time wasted; 
young ladies catch cold; constitutions broken down; late 
hours in sleep next morning, trying to repair the damages 
of the late hours taken from the previous night; light, 
trifliug conversation learned, and not good enough accom- 
plished to pay the damages. My friends, please regulate 
these things, and do all things decently and in order. 



GET OUT OF YOUR OWN LIGHT. £7 

3. Young persons ivho spe?id Sundays riding over the 
country are in their oivn light. 

Many precious hours are thus wasted — more than you 
possibly think. Horses that work all the week on the 
farm are made to carry burdens all day Sunday, that these 
young people may go somewhere. 1 have known many 
young men to thus waste time enough to have secured a 
good knowledge of history and literature, had it been spent 
with good books, and in the Sunday-schools. These young 
men are in their own light. Should they ever " come to 
years 9i and stop to think, they will see then what they can 
not now see. I am impressed with the idea that there is 
entirely too much " going " to be done on the Sabbath. 
Let us cut down our services, draw in our range, and give 
a part of the Sabbath to rest and Bible reading. 

4. Persons ivho in youth form habits that will interfere 
with their being perfect ladies and gentlemen are in their 
own light. 

If they were not they would not do it. Who ever heard 
of a mature and sensible man's learning to use tobacco, to 
swear, to prevaricate, to be low and vulgar in conversa- 
tion, to drink, to wreck a fine physical system, to give 
himself to the practice of the bad? No; these things are 
learned, ninety-nine times in a hundred, while the youth is 
in his own light. As soon as he gets out of it, and begins 
to " see himself as others see him," he has many a regret, 
and many a fight with self, with old Habit, for the mas- 
tery; and, oh! how often he says to himself, " Would that 
1 had seen then." My young friends, be warned by the 
experience of all the good, and leave off now the formation 
of all those habits that will in ary way interfere with your 
attaining to the condition of ladies and gentlemen. You 
have the best advantages of any one, the experience of all 
who have lived before you to guide you. Then, will you 
be led in wisdom's ways, and save many a regret and sor- 
row in after years? 



28 SHORT TALKS. 

5. Persons luho depend on external beauty to carry them 
through the ivorld are in their own light. 

Young ladies are more apt to get in the dark here. Few 
men are sufficiently handsome to hurt; but many women 
are pretty, and, unfortunately, they know it and depend on 
it. And, what is worse, they spend precious time and 
money and energy trying to so increase their personal 
beauty as to secure them an easy passage through life. 
What with powder and paint and bangs, and tight-fitting, 
high- heeled, sharp-toed shoes, and little waists, and heavy 
skirts, they hope to excel. Young ladies, you are in your 
own light. Men admire beauty, worship it almost, but 
they want something other than mere externality. It is 
not the body that loves or is loved. It is not the body that 
brings men at the feet of beautj?. The fact that a beauti- 
ful soul — inner life — is usually occupying a pretty house 
has lead some astray here, and hundreds of women a~e 
spending time and talent devising ways whereby they i 
become what the *' fashionable " world will call pretty; 
while the same time spent in real mind and soul culture 
will give a thousand times more beauty, and that which 
will not fade. There is nothing that shows woman's im- 
provement more than her breaking away from the foolish 
fashions of past ages. This is the age of reason and com- 
mon sense. This is the age of mind, and it is as true of 
woman as of man that, as Pope said of himself, 

°" Though 1 could reach from pole to pole, 
And grasp creation in my span, 
I must be measured by my soul; 

The mind's the standard of the man." 

6. Courting girls are in their own light. 

While it may be truthfully said this is woman's age, it 
may also be said that this is the age of the courting girl. 
By " courting girl " I mean one who will take the initia- 
tive in matters of courtship, who will stand in the cold half 
an hour to talk to her "fellow/' who will make herself 



GET OtJT OF YOUR OWN LIGHT 2D 

forward on any and all occasions to get into the society of 
the other sex, who will spend three months at some water- 
ing-place, ostensibly for her health, but really to catch some 
sort of a husband, who will say " yes " in a hundred ways 
before the man can ask the question. These girls are in 
their own light. Men do not want to marry courting girls. 
The courting girl rarely catches a man. She may get a 
" thing;" but men prefer to do the courting, and to hunt 
the girl they wish to court and marry, rather than to be 
hunted and courted. 

7. Persons who blindly follow the lead of organizations 
are in their own light. 

More people are in the dark, possibly, on this account 
than all others. Men believe certain things and do cer- 
tain things because, and only because, their church believes 
and teaches these same things. They cease to investigate 
subjects when they find out how far their church goes on 
this subject. This begets blindness, bigotry, and church- 
anity, but hinders Christianity. 

Men get their political faith second hand. They are 
certain things in politics because a party is. All independ- 
ent investigation is hindered. This is what the office-seek- 
ing politician wants as well as the Priest. When men 
think for themselves there is danger for the usurper of the 
people's rights, be he Pope, Priest, or King. When men 
blindly follow the lead of organization there is danger, but 
it is to the masses. Shun the man who would or does ad- 
vise against independent investigation in religion, politics 
or sociology. He has " an ax to grind." 

8. Parents who allow the children to rule the family are 
in their own light. 

Such rule brings ruin. Parents are yet wiser than their 
children. They should use this wisdom. Many do not. 
Many households are managed by the youngest member. 
The "good old ways" are passing into disrepute. Solo- 
mon is no longer thought wise on this subject. His advice 



SO SHORT TALKS. 

is cruel. The wisdom of the past is not to be compared to 
our wisdom. I do not advise the frequent use of the rod, 
but there must be control; there must be firmness. Let 
your No's be No's, and your Yes's be Yes's. Children 
respect firmness and truth. They despise weakness and 
deception, and they are not slow to see it. Children who 
have their own way in the family, will, with very few ex- 
ceptions, bring to themselves and friends only regret, 
shame, disgrace, and sorrow. 

9. Children, old or young, wlio are disobedient to parents 
are in their own light. 

This is hard for youthful minds to see. They do not 
want to see it. They rather eDJoy being in their own 
light. Liberty to do as we please is sweet for awhile. 
Obedience is a hard lesson to learn. But the longer we 
put off the learning of it the harder it will be in the end, 
and it must be learned some time. " Every knee must 
bow and every tongue confess," and the sooner we bow in 
obedience, the easier and better. Observation teaches that 
the obedient child makes the obedient citizen, the obedient 
Christian. Disobedience begins in little things. Great 
outbreaks of disobedience, that bring ruin and sorrow of 
heart, are not done in a short time. The disobedience that 
brings the hard and seemingly unjust punishment is the 
accumulated disobedience of years. He who heaps up 
" wrath against a day of wrath " is in his own light. 

10. The Church that depends on money is in its own light. 

One would think from the proceedings of various relig- 
ious meetings that the idea is abroad that if we had money 
enough we can soon convert the world. But I fail to find 
in my New Testament either that the world is to be con- 
verted or that Christianity is to be promulgated solely by 
the use of money. Have we not forgotten as a religious 
people that God is in the work of preaching, and doing all 
His work? Do we not depend too much on money? And 
has not this dependence inaugurated various unscriptural 



GET OUT OF YOUR OWN LIGHT. 31 

ways of raising the aforesaid cash? Behold suppers, plays, 
entertaiuments, games, lotteries, etc., to raise money for 
the " church. " 

11. The Church that depends on a "popular " preacher 
and fine music to " draw " is in its own light. 

Good preaching and good music are excellent, and adorn 
God's house, but they should not be made too much of. 
But what is worse, " popular " preaching and " popular " 
music are not scriptural preaching and scriptural music. 
On the other hand they are often very unsoriptural, and. 
serve to drive all spirituality out of the church. The de- 
mand for " popular " preachers is having anything but a 
good effect on preachers. The temptation to be one aud 
get a big salary is often more than some strong, intellect- 
ual men can withstand, and they yield to the demand to 
the sacrifice of God's word. Many a good sermon has been 
spoiled by cutting it to suit the popular demand. The 
Gospel of the Kingdom has never been " popular," will 
never be popular, and all attempts to make it popular only 
destroy it. 

12. He who lives " after the flesh " is in his oivn light. 
" Who would take the pains to trim a taper which burns 

only for a moment and can never be lighted again?" I 
fear we value too highly material things. Piles of money 
go further these days than character. " Give me money 
and I can do anything," is often heard. Every town is 
on the lookout for a " boom." We get in our own light 
along here, and forget that these things " can endure only 
for a season." Many men and women spend more on 
their bodies than on their minds. Nothing is too costly to 
eat or to wear, but the good things in the mental and 
moral world are out of our reach. Many men eat rich, 
costly dinners, and their families wear fine apparel, when 
they are not able to subscribe for their own church paper. 
We work hard daily " to spend it on our lusts." " These 
things ought not to be." 



IV. —THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 

Science is ascertained, classified knowledge. Educa- 
tion has been defined as the ability to use all of one's self 
to best advantage. Self is a duality, an inner and outer 
self; and both must be known and cultivated in a complete 
education. There is such interdependence between these 
two selves that there can not be a normal development of 
the inner self without attention to the outer self. A 
strong, vigorous, all-round-developed, active mind, in a 
strong, vigorous, all-round -developed, active body is 
another good description of the educated. The science of 
education, therefore, is somewhat complex. The true 
teacher must understand the laws which govern the outer 
self as well as the laws which govern the inner self. 

The following fundamental laws I regard as important 
to the educator, since they apply to the inner and the 
outer man. For the outer man there must be: 

1. A healthful atmosphere. 

How important this is! We must breathe constantly. 
We can go without our food for some time, we can live 
several days without water, but we can not stop breathing 
because the air is impure. If it be laden with life-destroy- 
ing elements, in our efforts to get the life-giving fluid we 
also breathe in death to our bodies. More attention is now 
given to this subject. Building committees and school- 
boards and teachers are constructing their houses with 
some view to ventilation. But there is room for much im- 
provement yet. We should not stop until there is a con- 
stant supply of pure air in our school buildings, our 
churches and our dwellings. Of the many pupils who re- 
turn home every year broken down by " overwork," a 

(32) 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 33 

large percentage of them are suffering from oxygen starva- 
tion and gaseous poisoning caused by too close confine- 
ment in poorly ventilated rooms. Many of our pale, 
weak, emaciated consumptives recover when they go to 
the woods, camp out for months, and get a plentiful sup- 
ply of pure oxygenized air. 

2. Wholesome, well-digested, perfectly assimilated food. 
With this there must be an exclusion of all non-foods 

and all poisons. There is great lack of information on 
this subject. Many teachers do not know enough of the 
human body and the chemistry of food to direct a pupil 
in this part of his education. Again, our cooks are very 
ignorant in many instances, and pander to our tastes, but 
pay little attention to our real wants. The food of stu- 
dents at many places is miserable, but more so at home. 
Sweetmeats, pastries, pies, and cakes, take the place of 
wholesome food. Much heat-producing food and little 
bone and muscle food is eaten, when it ought to be just 
reversed. If our young people could be taught to live on 
fruits, oats, wheat, bread, potatoes, milk and eggs, with 
lean meat occasionally, we would soon have a more vigorous 
and healthy population. Will not educators inaugurate 
this reform? Will not parents begin in the homes? for 
there is where the foundation is laid for a spoiled diges- 
tion. There can be very little accomplished along the 
line of temperance reform while there is intemperance in 
the home and the school. If we could keep our young 
people from tobacco and intoxicants for a few years the 
work would be done. 

3. Organic activity ; exercise of all the parts. 
Activity is a law of nature. From the surging ocean to 

the tiny animal and plant, all is action. The result of 
activity is purity, health, growth, strength. The result of 
inaction is weakness, decay, sickness, death. 

While the body is a unit in one sense, it is composed of 
many parts, or organs, and each one of these must have 



34 SHORT TALKS. 

exercise. If I drop my arm to my side and bind it there 
for a time I lose the power to move it, though 1 may use 
all the other members of the body regularly and correctly. 
If I even bind up one finger with splints and cords, and 
fail or refuse to move it as a finger, it grows pale, thin, 
weak, and unhealthy. Yet by proper exercise I make it to 
hold the weight of my body or to trace the fine hair lines 
with the pen or brush. 

Let us now turn our thoughts from this material body 
to the more interesting and more substantial inner body. 
Mind we may call it. What is it? How can we know it? 
By what laws does it grow? 

Mentality is not a something which is a result of our 
material lives. It is a substantial, organized, living body; 
a reality, an individual Ego. How can we know of this 
inner self and the laws which govern it? In two ways: 
By its manifestation, and by the organ through which it is 
manifested; just as we know of a bodily function. The 
individual knows of his good digestion, because he has 
none of the evil effects of a bad digestion; while the post- 
mortem examiner knows of the individual's good digestion 
by the condition of his stomach, known to be the organ 
of digestion. So we can learn of mind, its laws, its 
powers, its development, by closely and carefully studying 
the organ through which it manifests itself. In view of 
this the following are important facts to remember: 

1. The brain is the organ of the mind. 

2. Size of the brain, other things being equal, determines 
the powers of mind. 

3. Each faculty of mind has its action center, or separate 
organ, in the brain. 

4. Mental faculties which act together have their action 
centers, or organs, located together in the brain. 

Keeping before the mind the following outline of our 
mentality, let us apply our three hygienic laws to mental 
development : 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 



35 



MIND. 



2 1 Intellect. 
I 2 Perceptives. 

I 3 Form. 

2 3 Individuality. 

3 3 Size. 

4 3 Weight. 

5 3 Color. 

6 3 Order. 

7 3 Number. 
2 2 Literary. 

I 3 Language. 

2 3 Eventuality. 

3 3 Locality. 

4 3 Time. 

5 3 Tune. 
3 2 Reasoning. 

I 3 Causality. 

2 3 Comparison. 

3 3 Intuition. 



I 1 Feelings. 
I 2 Propensities. 
I 3 Selfish. 

I 4 Vitativeness. 

2 4 Appetite. 

3 4 Destruction. 

4 4 Secretion. 

5 4 Force. 

6 4 Acquisilion. 
2 3 Social. 

I 4 Amativeness. 

2 4 Conjugality. 

3 4 Parental Love. 

4 4 Friendship. 

5 4 Love of Home. 
2 2 Sentiments. 
I 3 Aspiring. 

I 4 Caution. 

2 4 Approbativeness. 

3 4 Dignity. 

4 4 Firmness. 

5 4 Continuity. 
2 3 ^Esthetic. 

I 4 Sublimity. 

2 4 Beauty. 

3 4 Construction. 

4 4 Imitation. 

5 4 Mirth. 

6 4 Agreeableness. 
3 3 Moral. 

I 4 Conscience. 

2 4 Kindness. 
4 3 Religious. 

I 4 Worship. 

2 4 Spirituality. 

3 4 Hope. 

1. A healthful atmosphere. 

Mentality must have it as well as flesh. Some do not 
regard it so. They ventilate rooms, look out on all sides 
for impurities in material things, but seem to forget that 



36 SHOKT TALKS. 

there must be purity iu mental atmosphere. Youth take 
on the life around them, breathe it into their very mental 
being, and are fed by it for good or evil. Look well, then, 
to the surrounding atmosphere. The boarding-school does 
not always have this pure mental air. Keep children at 
home and allow them to grow up ignorant of books, or 
with the limited knowledge they can get in the home-school, 
rather than send them where the mental air is not good. 
Mental atmosphere is never good on the streets at night. 
Not always so in the light of day. The less of street loaf- 
ing, the better for the youth. Parents, teachers, watch the 
mental atmosphere your children breathe. Strive that your 
children may say with Marcus Aurelius, " the wisest of the 
pagans," not that "I am indebted to the gods," but that 
" I am indebted to my progenitors for good grandfathers, 
good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, 
good kinsmen and friends — nearly everything good." 

2. Wholesome, well-digested, perfectly assimilated food. 

This is as much more important in mental growth than 
in physical as mind is superior to flesh; yet how neglect- 
ed. Much that is fed to our youth is not food, and much 
that is food is given in such a way as not to benefit. Food 
that is strength to our material body must be eaten, not 
poured down unchewed. Much of our present school work 
is a pouring-in process. Many teachers believe that 
knowledge is power, and think the more of this knowledge 
they can pour into their pupils the better. Such mental 
feeding is not strengthening to the pupil. In many in- 
stances it sickens and nauseates. This only makes some 
school-keepers think the more of it, and pour it down in 
double doses. They seem to have the idea that only what 
displeases the pupil is good for him; that childhood is all 
out of harmony with nature, and only as it is crossed and 
broken and opposed can it be educated. A fatal mistake. 
All mental food ought to be as pleasant as material food, 
and when it is not, there is something wrong with the food, 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 



37 



the cook, or the pupil. Teacher, study the surroundings 
and see where the trouble is. 

3. Exercise of all the parts — faculties of the mind. 

Glance back at the outline of Mind, and see how many 
faculties there are to feed. Something will be said of 
some of these separately, further on, but here I must call 
your attention to the groups. Under feeling we have 
'* Selfish Propensities." These give parents and teachers, 
and often self-builders of character, much trouble. Some 
think each one is a little imp in the human being which 
must be driven out or conquer- 
ed. In this department the 
poor, overworked teacher makes 
effort after effort to break that 
boy's '* will," not knowing 
that, if he should succeed, he 
would break the boy down for 
all good action as well as bad. 
These feelings, Force and De- 
structiveness especially, which 
have given teachers and par- 
ents so much trouble, and 

placed them under such a weight of responsibility, must 
be cultivated, not broken; trained, not overcome. They 
are given each human being by an All-Wise Creator 
for his use and protection. Without them, or with them 
spoiled, each character loses that force and vim without 
which there can be no success. The boy who has all the 
back-bone knocked out of him by some foolish teacher or 
silly parent goes through life a failure. Save the feelings; 
they are sacred. The faculties of Taste might receive ten 
times more culture in school and family than they do. 
Each pupil might be so trained as to see goodness and 
beauty in all the works of nature — " good in everything." 
The Social or Domestic faculties are not only neglected in 
nearly all schools, but their exercise is positively forbidden 




Fig. 3.— GROUPS OF ORGANS. 



38 SHORT TALKS. 

in many, so far as social life between the sexes is con- 
cerned. This prohibition has brought trouble into many 
schools. "No communication between the sexes " has 
made many a teacher's head rest uneasy at night. 

And rightly too. Boys and girls are born into this 
world in the same families, play together under the same 
" vine and fig-tree/' and the Church or teacher that tries 
to separate them and educate them apart deprives them of 
the very best and most ennobling social intercourse. This 
progressive age is fast breaking down these old ideas of 
seclusiveness for the sexes, and the result will be purer and 
better and stronger men and women. 

The Moral faculties being the highest and best, require 
the nicest and wisest cultivation. Much is being said and 
written on this subject now. There seems to be a lack of 
attention to this department of human nature, judging 
from the complaints which come in from various sources. 
This ground has been largely occupied by the churches; 
but have they not in a measure failed to give satisfaction 
in this work? There is some failure somewhere, or we 
would have better results. Moralitv is intimatelv con- 
nected with the Christian religion. The state can not teach 
religion, and hence there is a doubt as to the propriety of 
our public free schools teaching morality, as such. While 
wise (and otherwise) men are discussing this phase of the 
subject, it becomes all parents to look to the morals of all 
teachers aspiring to the instruction and education of their 
children. With moral and religious teachers, we are safe 
in school. But all are not such. With moral and relig- 
ious training in the home, we need not fear so much the 
consequences of the so-called " Godless " schools. 

Let our teachers study mentality and cultivate it in all 
directions. Much of the time now lost on intellect, trying 
to cram it with knowledge before it can comprehend, 
" digest and assimilate," might wisely be given to the cul- 
tivation of the feelings. 



V.— THE UTILITY OF PHKENOLOGY. 

This is a utilitarian age. " Cui bono?" is the question 
which is on many lips. There is much good sense in this 
feeling. Why should a man spend a life-time in the pur- 
suit of that which can be of no good, no benefit to him? 
The pendulum of utilitarianism may swing too far, but 
the lessons of utility it teaches in the swing are valuable. 
Nature adapts the animals and vegetables of every age, of 
every clime, to their surroundings. Does she do less for 
man? Is he not surrounded with the very best things for 
himself just now? Is it a fact that we must go back into 
the dim ages of the dusty past to gather thoughts and in- 
formation which are educative? Have we not ten thou- 
sand things on every hand and all around us which are as 
good mind-developers as any of the ancient lore, and at 
the same time worth much to our every-day life? The tend- 
ency of the present is to leave off much of the ancient 
past from the college course and take on that which is use- 
ful; and I verily believe it will be found more educative, 
more in accord with our feelings and desires for knowledge. 
The meat-and-bread problem of life is concerned with the 
present and the future, not so much with the past. Men 
now live in the present far more than in the past. So the 
utility of anything, any science, any language, any art, 
which people are asked to consider is a point in its favor, 
a " feather in its cap." 

Trying that system of mental science known as Phre- 
nology by this utilitarian measuring line, how does it stand 
the test? Let us see. 

Self-instruction, self -improvement, self -education, is the 
highest and best work of man. In fact we are self-edu- 

(39) 



40 SHORT TALKS. 

cated or not educated, self-perfected or not perfected, self- 
made or not made. Then, whatever helps self in this 
work is of the greatest good. What can do this better than 
self-knowledge? And that is just what Phrenology is. 
"The proper study of mankind is man," Phrenology 
gives one a hold on self which he could not otherwise have. 
The knowledge of self got through Phrenology and its kin- 
dred science, Physiology, is such as can not be had outside 
of these. As a starter, then, in self-improvement nothing 
can take the place of Phrenology. 

As a basis for educational systems, Phrenology stands 
alone as the Science on which these must be founded. 
Educational theories are not worth much unless they are 
based on truth. All educational theories and methods 
must have mental science for a starting point. The nature 
of mind and its relation to external things must be investi- 
gated and understood to a certain extent by the educator 
before he can claim that he is applying the right treatment 
for the normal development of youth. Yet what system 
of education not founded on Phrenology can lay any sort 
of claim to having truth for its foundation? Prior to the 
days of Dr. Gall, the discoverer of Phrenology, there were 
no demonstrated facts about the mind and its manifesta- 
tions. Each mental philosopher theorized on philosophy 
from his standpoint, giving more of his own mental feel- 
ings and intellectual manifestations than aught else in his 
treatment of the subject. If he found certain things true 
of himself, he thought they must be true of every other in- 
dividual of the genus homo, and had no hesitancy in saying 
so in his books. In giving a description of his own mental 
feelings and manifestations he often contradicted the theo- 
ries of some other great philosopher who had given to the 
world a system of mental science consisting of his particu- 
lar mental feelings and manifestations. That these mental 
philosophers thus contradicted each other is positive proof 
that at least some of them were wrong, and leaves a pretty 



The utility of phrenology. 4l 

clear inference that all were. Phrenology came to the 
rescue, demonstrated the existence of mental faculties, ex- 
plained all the mental phenomena with which these learned 
men had been wrestling unsuccessfully for years, and even 
explained just why these men differed from each other in 
their theories, namety, because they differed as men. 
Each one wrote up himself in his book on metaphysics, 
and as he was not like any other of the writers on the sub- 
ject, his explanation of mentality fitted only himself. 
Phrenology proved that Mind consists of many faculties, 
and that these may be strong or weak in different individ- 
uals, or some strong and others weak in the same individ- 
ual, and thus made clear the great diversity of mental 
power, disposition and character among men. 

Compared with the older systems of mental philosophy, 
Phrenology is as the light of day compared with the murky 
shades of darksome night. Truth is always more simple 
and comprehensible than error. God's plan of govern- 
ment compared with man's shows this beautifully. How 
simple the plan of the Church and its workings, as set forth 
by its Great Head, as compared to those since arranged and 
founded by men. Truth is divine. Truth is easy. Truth 
is simplicity. Error is hard to find out. The ways of 
error are hard to follow. The theories of error are intri- 
cate. Take the theories of the older mental philosophy, 
and only the mature in mind, and not all of them, can be- 
gin to comprehend them; yet a child can' learn Phre- 
nology, and the truths of mental science as taught by it. 
What a revolution it will work in the college course when 
the schools all learn and teach Phrenology! Youth will 
then learn something of mind, something of self, before 
reaching the graduating year in the highest course, as 
now. Pupils will be taught mental philosophy early, and 
their further education will be built up on this excellent 
foundation and be made to conform to its truths. When 
parents and teachers can say with Horace Mann, one of 



42 SHORT TALKS. 

America's greatest educators, " 1 look upon Phrenology as 
the guide of Philosophy, and the handmaid of religion/' 
and believe with him that " whoever disseminates true 
Phrenology is a public benefactor/' we will have Phre- 
nology in the school and the family, where it ought to be. 

Parents find Phrenology of the utmost good. Child 
culture is a neglected industry. Why? Because those en- 
gaged in the business do not know enough of the material 
on which they work. All parents feel the need of this 
knowledge; they all feel their great responsibility; but 
where is the help to come from? Oh, that mothers knew 
just how to make the most of the life intrusted to them 
from its very beginning! How many precious lives are 
wrecked and ruined because they do not! To parents this 
science comes as a great benefactor. It teaches them 
what is in the precious child, and what they may expect of 
it. If every mother in the land knew Phrenology, and 
would apply its teachings in child culture, it would work a 
speedy revolution in our youth. With our present methods 
of dealing with the young, resulting from our lack of 
knowledge of their natures and needs, the wonder is that 
we get as good results as we do. The wonder is that every 
child is not an out and out liar and thief. If there were 
not more good in human nature than most persons believe, 
it would be. 

Child mind, child culture, is a most interesting study, 
and one in which we can not progress unless we have some 
knowledge of Human Science. 

Lawyers should know Phrenology, that they may know 
human nature. Without the latter knowledge they can 
not succeed. Yet all of human nature is taught in Phre- 
nology. What lawyers learn of human nature from 
necessity is based on Phrenology whether they know it or 
not. They practice years to learn men, yet if they fol- 
lowed this science they might learn more in weeks than 
now in years. 



THE UTILITY OF PHRENOLOGY. 4^ 

How much would the lawyer give to know at a glance 
just what juryman can not be brought over to his own 
way of thinking, and just what one can! This knowledge 
Phrenology gives. One can read character by its aid. It 
is not a guess or fortune-telling, but a science. Lawyers 
do learn to read character. How? Because there is a 
science of Phrenology, and unconsciously they learn it, 
and learn to use it iu their practice. 

Merchants could use Phrenology to good advantage in 
their business. They want to know men. Who does not? 
They are knowable. They are an open book to those who 
learn to read them, and a most interesting volume. 

Preachers could get hold of their hearers much better 
if they knew more of them. What a volume of truth 
Phrenology opens to the preacher! How it enlarges his 
view of the human soul and its needs! No wonder Henry 
Ward Beecher said he would not take the whole of New 
York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City for what Phrenology was 
worth to him. Many a one would prize it equally as 
highly if he knew as much of it as did this great student. 
How muddy some preachers do make the subject of man's 
immortal self when they begin to try to present Bible 
truth to him! This would not be if they knew that self. 
The truth of the Bible would become ten times more clear 
if the truth of Human Science were only taught with it. 
Preachers are to be " fishers of men. " Should they not 
know what kind of fish they are seeking? Did you ever 
go fishing with one who was well acquainted with the 
habits and disposition of the fishes you were seeking, while 
you knew nothing of them? Which took the more fish? 
The fisherman who knew his fish, of course. The one who 
knows absolutely nothing of the fish he is after may feel 
surprised if he gets anything. Is it not thus with '* fishers 
of men?" Ay, only far more true. As far more true as 
men are more intricate and complex in their habits, dispo- 
sitions and characters than fishes. 



44 SHORT TALKS. 

All public speakers as well as preachers could greatly 
increase their powers over their audiences by learning 
Phrenology. The natural language of the mental facul- 
ties is the basis of all oratory, all eloquence, all the art of 
good speaking. This is why the " natural " speaker 
moves his hearers. He is indeed natural; he follows 
nature in all his words, gestures, and inflections. He has 
not been ruined in a school of oratory in which they did 
not know that the mind has separate and distinct facul- 
ties, and that each of these has its own inimitable lan- 
guage. When Phrenology has its place in the schools 
which it ought to have we shall have a natural method of 
elocution and oratory. Now, practice in these is just 
about as apt to injure as to benefit. 

To students of Language and Literature Phrenology 
brings a rich reward. Every thought, every feeling, 
every desire, every emotion, every passion which has 
found a place on the pages of our literature and been 
recorded in Language had its origin in the primal mental 
faculties of the human mind. "What a mine of rich and 
beautiful things is opened to him who can so analyze the 
language which he is studying as to trace each of these 
thoughts, feelings, emotions, and passions to its proper 
origin, to the very mental faculty which gave it birth! 

Then Language study becomes of the greatest interest, 
instead of dry and burdensome as now. Then Language 
would be taught aright, instead of in dry skeletons as now. 
Phrenology would revolutionize our systems of education 
and our courses of study, but in no branch would it work 
greater good than in Language and Literature. 

How to succeed in life is a great question. Few do their 
very best. All might succeed much better if they were 
working in the right place. Phrenology aids all by saying 
just what each can do, and what not. All are not adapted 
for one thing. For a parent to decide that a certain boy 
is adapted to a certain thing without any science for a base 



THE UTILITY OF PHRENOLOGY. 45 

of reasoning, and educate him for that thing, is not only a 
business failure, but cruelty to the young. Carry the boy, 
the girl, to a Phrenologist and let him say scientifically 
just what the child can do, and then educate him for that 
life work. It has been done many a time, and has not 
failed. It is said that James A. Garfield walked fifty 
miles to procure a phrenological examination, and it 
proved time well spent. God has given each one of us a 
practical talent for something if we only knew just what 
the work is. Many waste precious years trying to find 
from experiment. Some succeed, led by bent or inclina- 
tion. Others never find their place in the busy walks of 
life. Phrenology is the only science that claims to place 
the right man in the right place in life's work. Does it 
not deserve much praise for this one thing alone?* 

l * Marriage a failure/' " gone to Chicago," are frequent 
remarks. Reformers want better marriage laws. They 
seem not to know that these " laws " are natural, not civil; 
that they are within each human being, and must be obeyed 
" from the heart." Yet so it is. Marriage is a natural 
institution, a divine arrangement; and that it may not 
fail, God has placed its mental faculty within us. Con- 
jugality calls for one wife for a husband, and one husband 
for a wife. And what is equally important, Phrenology 
says correctly and demonstrably who may marry and be 
happy and who may not. All know something of the 
natural laws of marriage as they do of almost all natural 
laws, but not sufficient to insure no failure. All know 
that all the dark must not marry each other, nor all the 
tall, neither the short nor the freckled, neither the red- 
headed nor the fair. There must be a kind of compensa- 
tion; a balance must be kept. Human Science tells just 
how and where. Phrenology can not fail to marry the 

* For a full exposition of this subject, and the bearing of phre- 
nology on it, read " Choice of Pursuits," by Professor Sizer. 



46 SHORT TALKS. 

right persons to each other. If it made half as many fail- 
ures here as do parents, priests and lovers, it would deserve 
the everlasting condemnation of all, and in fact would be 
no science. Yet no one can point to a single failure it has 
made. Where its laws are faithfully followed in marriage, 
happy unions are the result. Would it not pay reform 
societies to propagate its laws? Would it not be the shortest 
road to success? Would it not be the only true way to suc- 
ceed? Whatever Natural Law has joined together let no 
man put asunder, and whatever Natural Law has separated 
let no civil law join together. Persons not adapted in 
marriage can not be united. Those well mated can not be 
separated by the divorce courts. Marriage lies far back 
behind the civil contract. Look well to it, and obey the 
higher law of your nature. 



VI. —THE PERCEPTIVES, AND HOW TO 
EDUCATE THEM. 

Intellect is divided into Perceptive, Retentive, and 
Reflective Faculties. All knowledge comes through the 
Perceptive mental faculties and the Senser. Hew to edu- 




Fig. 4— PERCEPTIVES LARGE —J. P. RICHARDSON OF S. C. 

(47) 



48 SHORT TALKS. 

cate these, then, so as to gather the most information, is an 
important question. It is one that is overlooked by 
teachers. Many instructors seem not to know that 
Human Beings have Perceptive faculties; or if they sup- 
pose they have them, their actions would prove that they 
believe their activity injurious or wicked. Many teachers 
go so far in their attempts to strangle the rising Percep- 
tives as to paint the lower window blinds so the children 
can not see out. Why not put their heads in a sack, my 
friends, or tie a bandage around their wicked eyes, and fill 
their little ears with cotton? This would be about as wise 
and humane as to pen them in a house, keep them shut 
in for ten hours a day, and destroy all their desire to see 
things. When Parents, Teachers and Students come to 
understand the mind better, all this foolishness of shutting 
children in a dark room, and teaching them to learn A, 
B, C, and to read, write and cipher before they know any- 
thing, will be abandoned, and our systems of education 
will follow nature, and use first the faculties which God 
makes the strongest in the child to gather knowledge, 
and get ready for what must follow in a natural educa- 
tion. The Perceptives are the first Intellectual Faculties 
used by the child. They are situated in the brain just 
above and around the eyes, and any one who ever looked 
on the face of the new-born babe thoughtfully has noticed 
how his little forehead retreats from the eyes. The cause 
of this is that Nature has endowed him with ample Per- 
ceptives to start very soon on his work of gaining knowl- 
edge — learning things. Now let the parent and teacher 
start with this child, follow it as it follows nature, which 
it surely does, and open up the way for its perfect ed ucation. 
Opposition to its childish ways and desires is not the way 
to train it. It is not all wrong and out of rapport with 
nature. It is not totally depraved, Calvin and his follow- 
ers to the contrary notwithstanding. It is natural, nor- 
mal, a beautiful piece of work from God's hands, placed in 



THE PERCEPTIVES, AND HOW TO EDUCATE THEM. 4*i 

a beautiful and lovely world filled with good things for its 
use and education. 

It is not all of education to learn from books. In fact, 
one may be well educated and not know anything in books. 
About all the education which is worth working for is the 
development, evolution, of the natural faculties, the bring- 
ing out, strengthening, and cultivating of what is within - 
not the filling the mind with useful knowledge. In 
this process the Perceptives must be developed first, and 
their food is things. They put us in relation with Things. 
They are Individuality or Observation, Form 5 Size.- Weight 
Color, Order, Number, and Locality. 

Individuality presents to the mind things as things. It 
notices objects as objects. Not that they have certain 
properties, but that they are things. In a word, it sees the 
thingness of things. It is the noun Faculty. The noun 
comes first in knowledge. We must see a thing as a thing 
before we can say that it has form, size, weight, color, or 
any property. So, then, this Faculty is a prerequisite tc 
all others. To begin its cultivation, show children things. 
They are very much interested in these. Watch the little 
fellow look and look and look at a thing so intently. He 
is taking it in as a thing. See how soon he wants tc 
handle it and thus get a better idea of its thingness. 
Now, parent, teacher, seize on this natural craving of the 
child to investigate, and start him out on the road to fort- 
une — a fortune of knowledge, truth, strength of mind, 
and perfection of mental development which shall last 
through all eternity. Let him look and listen and ob- 
serve. Teach him how to look, listen and observe. Call 
his attention to things. Ask him about things. Answer 
his questions about things. He is learning, investigating, 
growing, developing. Quench not his spirit by saying 
such and such thing is not for him to know. It is for him 
to know. There is no knowledge which can come to a child 
too soon. He is more able to understand than you think. 



50 SHORT TALKS. 

Children are much smarter than they get credit for being, 
and there is ten times more good in them than people be- 
lieve. They are made just right. " Except ye be con- 
verted and. become as a little child, ye shall in nowise 
enter into the kingdom. " 

Every house can be made a museum of curious things if 
only- the children are encouraged to collect them. The 
great trouble is we know so little of things that we are not 
sufficiently interested in them to work with the children. 
Every home should be a Kindergarten. It will pay 
mothers to develop their children. It is an investment 
which brings compound interest throughout eternity. 
Can you begin to see what that means? The world is full 
of things to be used in the development of the young 
mind. Plants, Animals and Earth may be studied before 
the child can read. We do amiss when we defer everv- 
thing until after the child can begin to get ideas through 
the printed page. Books are now becoming a burden. 
There are too many Text-Books, too many books for the 
young. Not enough time is given to oral teaching. 
This is the natural way. It is a great wonder that chil- 
dren learn as much as they do when they have to wade 
through so much that is not only uninteresting, but posi- 
tively distasteful to them. Children are always interested 
in the natural way of getting knowledge and developing 
mind. Let this be a guide. If we do not interest the 
child we are not going right. 

Form is a property of all bodies. Whatever is has it. 
We can not conceive of anything unless we give to it 
Form. Bodies terrestrial and bodies celestial have this 
property in common. Without it there can be no exist- 
ence. The human mind, then, must have a mental 
Faculty with which to take hold of and perceive this qual- 
ity of all things. And so it has. To understand this 
faculty, its needs, its food, and its manner of development, 
is the duty of him who aspires to train the human mind. 



THE PERCEPTIVES, AND HOW TO EDUCATE THEM. 51 

Some children have this faculty much stronger, aud its 
organ, which is situated just back of and between the eyes, 
much larger than others. If teachers will notice they will 
find that those pupils who have great distance between the 
eyes, whose eyes look apart rather than together, will get 
a better idea of form, will copy all forms and draw maps 
from looking at them much better than those who are 
narrow between the eyes. Yet all have this faculty 
sufficiently strong to enable them to do much more than 
is now done by the best ;f it were only cultivated. To 
cultivate, notice all forms. Get and put on paper with 
pencil various simple forms to begin with. All may be 
made artists if taught right. Children dearly love to work 
in forms. See how busily they engage all their attention 
making pictures, carving with jack-knife, or molding in 
the sand. Children love to make things when they can 
see them take shape under their own eyes. Now, take ad-" 
vantage of this natural inclination and have them make 
something every day. This is the basis of manual train- 
ing, and if Form and Construction are rightly educated in 
the child, we may look for much improvement in the ap- 
pearance of our homes. Teach children to see the beauty 
of form. Nature is full of lessons to help in this training. 
All the things which God has made are of beautiful and 
perfect form. Examine them from the smallest to the 
greatest. The leaves upon the trees, the fruit upon the 
stem, the pebble at our feet, the birds that fly in the air, 
the fishes that swim, all are perfectly formed by the Great 
Architect. 

Size is another property of all things. The mind can 
judge of it. Trained minds can come right up to within 
the smallest fraction of the exact size of whatever they 
know all about. Children are shamefully neglected in the 
cultivation of this sense. Many young people complete 
Arithmetic, measuring all the things which are there laid 
down (on paper), and at the close of their school work 



52 SHORT TALKS. 

could not come within six inches of cutting off a yard of 
cloth by guess. Educated boys who have been all through 
the work of square measure time and again, and memo- 
rized all the tables about measuring land and surfaces, 
could not come within one half of estimating the number 
of acres in a ten-acre block. This should not be, need not 
be. The mind is capable of learning these things through 
this Faculty of Size. Then let it. Let the children see 
pints, quarts, pecks, bushels, feet, inches, yards, spans, 
hands, fathoms, rods, acres, cords, and everything which 
they will be called on to know, instead of learning imagina- 
tively about them from the books. Have a test every day 
by your pupils' estimating the size of something conveni- 
ent. Start with the height in feet and inches of each 
member of the class. You will be surprised when some 
bright pupil says that John, who is five feet high, is only 
three. But keep it up. They will learn by trying. The 
only reason they do not know the size of many things 
better is that their attention has not been called to them. 
They will learn it surprisingly fast because it is natural 
with them. 

Weight puts us in relation with gravity and its direction. 
But we need not wait until children can understand 
Physics before we begin to teach them what this is. Daily 
practice may be had right at hand. No books are neces- 
sary. Begin with the objects which God has given for the 
instruction and use of His children. In cultivating this 
Faculty you will not only have children estimate the 
weight of everything of which they can get a knowledge, 
but you may give them valuable lessons in walking, run- 
ning, jumping, and various athletic sports. They all like 
this because it is what they need. All ought to walk 
better than they now do. Carriage of body is learned by 
the cultivation of Weight. This faculty has much to do 
with physical exercise as well as with practical every-day 
work. You will be surprised to find that intelligent 



THE PERCEPTIVES, AND HOW TO EDUCATE THEM. 53 

people know absolutely nothing of the weight of the most 
common things. It is very interesting to have a class 
make estimates on such things, then weigh them in their 
presence. They will do better next time. Open up this 
subject to the young, and they will pursue it with pleasure 
and profit long after their grammars and arithmetics are 
laid away. 

Color is so poorly attended to that many are said to be 
color-blind, or idiotic on the subject of colors. This 
Faculty is not cultivated in many of our schools in the 
South, and little mention is made of it in the family. It 
is a beautiful subject, and is capable of rendering much 
happiness to the learner, and is withal a very useful and 
practical lesson. To teach color call attention to colors, 
not to a philosophical treatise on Colors in some philoso- 
phy. Take the thing itself, and show it to the children. 
Familiarize them with the primary colors before they 
know there is such a subject as Natural Philosophy. I 
can not say what might be done for a class if the work is 
rightly managed, but I know that all might become expert 
m colors. I know we all have this mental faculty which 
puts us in relation with, and makes us know and appre- 
ciate and admire color, and I know that, like all mental 
Faculties, it is capable of endless improvement. 

Order is no less Earth's than Heaven's first law. Since 

" Confusion heard His voice, and wild Uproar 
Stood ruled; stood vast Infinitude confined, 
Till at His second bidding Darkness fled, 
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung," 

the law of all creation has been Order. That mental 
faculty, therefore, which can put us in harmony with this 
Divine arrangement is of much consequence, and its culti- 
vation worthy of much attention. System must govern 
everything. All business, all pleasure, all work must 
come to time and to rule. Children would better not do 
a thing than to half-way do it. The way some parents let 



54 SHORT TALKS. 

children attend school is enough to ruin their order for 
life: a little this week, less next, more the next — nothing 
definite or sure, only that you can not count on their being 
regular and orderly. 

Parents should rather see that their children have a 
chance to be orderly. Teachers should have daily drills in 
observing and producing order. Let each pupil have a 
certain time for each thing he is to do. Have order and 
perfect system about all the work of educating. Let 
things be sure to come on time and in regular manner. 

Have children at home and at school keep a nice, neat, 
orderly house. At home they should have apartments of 
their own, for the order and arrangement of which they 
are held responsible. 

Call attention to the perfect order of all Nature's work, 
arrange a number of objects in order, and after disarrang- 
ing them, have children to put them back as they were. 
Do the same with words, figures and everything, until you 
get them to see order. Require order in all work, walk 
and talk. 

He who has a place for everything and keeps everything 
in its place will do twice as much work as he who works 
twice as hard, but does things in any shape, just as it hap- 
pens. Therefore, every minute spent in the cultivation of 
Order is well spent. 

Number is a necessary attribute of all things on earth. 
They are either first, second, third, etc., or one, two, 
three, etc. Number answers the question " How many?" 
All peoples can count. Children begin to count and 
reckon by numbers very young, and are delighted with it. 
This disposition should be encouraged every day. Have 
them count objects, add, subtract, multiply, divide. But 
do all with objects. None are half so expert in numbers 
as they ought to be, because, instead of teaching Number 
to children, we teach them figures and Arithmetic. All 
might learn to handle numbers five times as fast as they 



THE PERCEPTIVES, AtfD HOW TO EDUCATE THEM. 55 

do if only taught. As Arithmetic is taught with slate and 
pencil, children forget that they are trying to learn num- 
bers. Do not defer teaching Number until children can 
make figures. Figures are not necessary to numbers. In 
fact they are sometimes much in the way. Mental Arith- 
metic ought to receive five times the attention it does uow. 
Let parents and teachers begin to cultivate this faculty of 
Number as soon as the child is old enough, which is about 
the second year, and continue its development through 
school days, and we will see better accountants than now. 
Men will learn to rely on mind, not on figures, for results 
in calculation. How often it happens that one who does 
not know much of " figures," but has been forced to deal 
in Number, will get the right answer to a business problem, 
while the one who makes figures comes out behind and 
with the wrong answer. 

Locality gives whatever is — position. Nothing can be 
without it. Whatever is must be somewhere. All things 
in nature have their place. We study sciences to learn 
this. Geography, Geology, Zoology, Phrenology, all call 
on us for Locality. Our daily life is made up of localized 
actions. Locality is a busy mental faculty. 

It should be a strong one in all. Teach Locality right 
along with all beginning work with children. Locate your 
room, then your house, then your neighbor's house, then 
your town or place, then your county, state, country. 
Teach children to describe locations. Call their attention 
while young to the location of everything in their neigh- 
borhood. A single town will furnish more work for 
Locality than is usually done by it. Take the town by 
streets, then by blocks, and work it up until all can locate 
everything exactly. If in the country, have young people 
to notice roads, peculiar trees, the direction traveled, the 
direction of streams — in short, to note well their track, so 
they will recognize it the next time. 

In the study of History and Geography — and both ought 



56 SHORT TALKS. 

to be studied together always — have the place located by 
drawing the picture of it as best it can be done. All can 
not travel, but all can see things by the help of this faculty 
and imagination. 

Some people know absolutely nothing of the country in 
which they live: can not give you directions to a neigh- 
bor's house three miles from where they have lived for 
years: could not tell you how to go to the country 
church or to the village where they have been hundreds 
of times. It affords much delight, and gives one much 
useful knowledge, to rightly cultivate this Faculty. Its 
location so near to Eventuality, the historical Faculty, in- 
dicates that it must always be used in studying History. 
Give every event a place and a name. 



VII.— HOPE. 

" Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow 
Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe." 

One of the greatest blessings which Phrenology can be 
to us is to demonstrate that whatever is good is found 
within ourselves. Mental Faculties, moral qualities, social 
instincts, are innate. Nothing can be added to us. God 
made us complete. We only have to develop by use what 
we already ha^e. Hope, sweet Hope, cheery Hope, joyous 
Hope, expectant Hope, uplifting Hope, is an innate men- 
tal faculty. Then it is our privilege, our duty to be hope- 
ful — full of hope. Possibly no other mental faculty minis- 
ters so much to our comfort and success, to the pleasure 
and delight of our associates, as Hope. Its education, 
therefore, becomes of the greatest importance. To edu- 
cate, indulge it, guided by reason. Control it by willing 
to do it. It relates us to the future. There is, then, a 
future. No time shall ever come when there will not be a 
future. Man, then, is immortal. Hope is only to begin 
here, and go on in the hereafter. The next life, then, must 
be progressive. God alone is perfect. He has made us to 
" grow in grace/ J and come closer and closer to Him each 
day. Progression should be our watchword. Excelsior is 
God's decree. 

What we hope for we expect; what we expect we usually 
get. Hope, then, lies at the foundation of all success, all 
progress, all attainments. Hope begets prophecy and 
faith; Hope begets endeavor. He who is filled with hope 
works cheerfully. Such work always succeeds. We hope 
for great things, we expect great things of the future, we 
bring to pass great things. When the great missionary 

(57) 



58 



SHORT TALKS. 



said, " Expect great things from God, attempt great 
things for God," he made a natural connection. Expect- 
ing great things begets great effort. God has put the 
expectancy, the Hope, into our souls, and we are to make 




Fig. 5. -HOPE LARGE. -CHARLOTTE FOWLER WELLS. 



the great efforts. God has done His part of the work; we 
are to do ours. 

Hope begets a looking forward; memory connects us 
with the past. On its dark side we should not look too 



HOPE. 59 

much. The future is ours, the past is gone. Then look 
to the future. All past mistakes may be corrected, and 
overcome. The future is long, and full of opportunity. 
What can not be accomplished? Hope in the future sends 
the pioneer into the wilderness. Hope in the future 
cleared our forests and erected our most magnificent 
structures. Hope in the future puts the seeds into the 
ground. As is our hope, so is our work. We expect re- 
sults, we look forward for results, we hope for results, we 
do work meet for results, we get results. 

Hope makes us believe that " whatever is, is right." If 
we are Christians it has us saying, " All things work 
together for good." How else can it be? Any other 
hypothesis would rob God of all goodness and wisdom. 
He made all things just right, and so arranged it that 
their workings can never be wrong. Then, downcast one, 
cheer up! There is good in everything. This is no dream 
of the poets or reveling of an unnatural imagination. It 
is one of God's truths. 

By the use of Hope, by a belief in the righteousness of 
God's laws, cast off gloom and forget its shadow. Trust 
in the Lord and He will bring it to pass. Why not? If a 
heathen king could live in Hope, how much more ought 
we? When Alexander the Great had divided out all his 
possessions among his friends, and Perdiccas asked him 
what he had reserved for himself, he replied, " Hope." 

We do often bestir ourselves to find complaint. How 
many things are there which go wrong, and which can 
never be righted ! Absence of Hope, perverted Hope, be- 
gets this spirit of complaint. How unwise, how very fool- 
ish, to indulge it. Do not complain at what can not be 
remedied; do not complain at what can be remedied. 
Away, then, with complaint, with darkness, with repining. 
It brings no good. The cry of " hard times " never made 
them easier. To lose confidence in the future is miser- 
able. To believe that this is the worst time we have ever 



60 . SHORT TALKS. 

had, and that the future has only sadness and sorrow, dis- 
appointment and woe, is to wreck all our chances. It is 
to deny wisdom and dishonor God. The greatest evil 
which can afflict us is a loss of confidence in the future. 
And God has given us Hope, that we may not despair. 
The person who has large Hope will not. He may be cast 
down, but he will not surrender. He may be in poverty, 
but he will not give up. A grain of Hope is worth a 
pound of gold. The man with active Hope is happy, while 
he with many dollars is in misery. None of us get half 
the pleasure out of life, out of Hope, that we might. Since 

" Races better than we have leaned on her wavering promise, 
Having naught else but Hope, ' ' 

why should not we? 

Then " hope on, hope ever." If there is no " peg to 
hang your hope on," drive in one and then hang it. If 
there is no future for you, make one. If you desire great- 
ness and hope for it, make it. Believing is seeing, hoping 
is having. So arouse Hope, gird on Faith, go in to win, 
subdue, and possess. 



VIII. —CONSCIENCE. 



^ 



For many years men have thought and talked about 
right and wrong in human action, and why men do the 
one or the other. Learned men have written about it long 
essays, moral philosophers have speculated, and professors 
of moral philosophy in the colleges have taught these specu- 
lations as truth; yet men are not agreed at all, and the 
common people know nothing of this teaching, for they do 
not go to the colleges and take classic 
courses, and if they did they could not 
understand the present teaching on 
moral philosophy, since the authors of 
the books do not understand it them- 
selves. One author teaches that we do 
right only because it is popular; an- 
other says only because we are benefit- 
ed thereby ourselves; another teaches 
that we do right only because God has 
commanded us to do so; still another 
teaches that we are impelled to right actions by a good 
spirit which accompanies us; and still another will teach 
that there is no right or wrong. It is clear that in these 
teachings we have only the feelings of various authors 
differing as much as they differed as men. Whatever gov- 
erned and controlled each of them as individuals he has 
taught us controls our actions, the conduct of the whole 
world. To use a common phrase, * l they have measured 
our corn, every one's corn, in their bushels." 

Phrenology has settled and made clear this point by 
demonstrating that men have in their brains the organ of 

(61) 




Fig. 6. - CONSCIENTI- 
OUSNESS SMALL. 



62 



SHORT TALKS. 



Conscience, and, therefore, a primal, mental faculty of 
Conscience. If this science had done nothing else for the 
world, this is enough to repay the labors of the discoverers 
of Phrenology. This faculty is our sheriff to bring us to 
justice, not our judge of right and wrong, or our in- 
structor as to 
what is right or 
wrong. Con- 
science itself, be- 
ing merely a sen- 
timent, a feeling, 
does not know 
right from wrong, 
therefore, is no 
guide to right, as 
some teach, but 
an impulse to do 
what we have 
been taught and 
believe is the 
right, to shun 
what we think is 
wrong. As to 
what is right or 
wrong, the intel- 
lect, the knowing 
faculties, must 
teach us that. So 
it is not enough to 
do what we think 
is right, but it is 
our duty to know the truth, the right. For this purpose 
God made us knowing, reasoning beings. And each is to 
know for himself and not another. We should, then, not 
be so well pleased, so satisfied with the conduct which gives 
us ease of Conscience unless we know what is right. We 




Fis. 7.— H. B. ANTHONY. 
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS LARGE. 



CONSCIENCE. 63 

should seek to have a "good" Conscience as well as an 
"easy" Conscience. The latter is given by doing what 
we think to be right, the former by doing that which is 
right. 

The activity, the acuteness of Conscience depends on its 
use, its training. It is much larger in children than 
adults. This tells a bad tale as to our treatment of it. 
Every time we neglect its warning, go counter to this feel- 
ing that we should do right, we weaken it. Every time 
we are led by it, we strengthen it. Its training, then, is im- 
portant, natural and easy, as is that of all the mental 
faculties when they are understood. It is not to be 
trained by moral lectures. " Telling is not teaching," 
not training. Many good parents give long lectures to 
children, and then wondei that they do not do right. 
Many teachers " tell it over and over again," and wonder 
why their pupils are not strong and wise. 

Here is the secret: there has been no activity of faculty. 
You can not give a child ability in arithmetic by telling 
him about it; you can not teach him music by lectures on 
the science; neither can you give him activity of Con- 
science by moral lectures. There must be doing. " We 
learn to do by doing." We can appeal to the child's 
Conscience, and show it how to obey it, but no strength 
comes of this unless the child does obey it. The individ- 
ual must ask for himself, "Is this right?" If right, do 
it; if wrong, shun it as you would poison, the adder, death; 
for doing wrong knowingly is death to this mental faculty. 
Therefore, " let justice be done, though the heavens fall;" 
or, as Washington has put it, " Labor to keep alive in 
your breast that little spark of celestial fire— called Con- 
science. " 

" What is right? Why is right, right?" 

" Whatever is, is right." God — Nature — makes no mis- 
takes, and only ordains suffering and pain that good may 
come of them. Eight is right of itself, and not because men's 



04 SHORT TALKS. 

law, or society, divine law, or God himself, says it is. God 
tells us the truth because it is truth, not to make it truth. 
We should, then, do right because it is right. Oh! for 
men with this principle, men who will " fear God and 
keep His commandments/' without any fear of punish- 
ment, men who will not sacrifice Conscience for the dollar, 
for popularity, for the approval of the great of earth, for 
any or everything. 

We want more of Conscience in every walk of life. Our 
farmer needs it, that he may not mix water with his milk, 
put his best fruit on top and the rotten at the bottom, 
pack his cotton with the poorest in the middle of the bale, 
take to market spoiled eggs, and a hundred other things 
which he does. The blacksmith needs it active, to make 
him put good material in all his work, and repair to makp 
it last, not to make it wear out. The carpenter wants 
large Conscience, so he will not put in weak and poor tim- 
bers where strong ones are needed, so he will not work 
three weeks on a ten days' job if he is working by the day. 
The merchant must watch his conscience. He has such a 
good chance to spoil it, such inducements to overreach and 
weigh light and heavy, for it is money in his pocket now. 
Only a little while ago there w T as a great outcry about 
light weights in all merchandise sold by the pound, and it 
was just about proved that all goods put up by weight are 
shoi t. This is a sad commentary on the American mer- 
chant and manufacturer. Shall this thing continue? 
The lawyer — what shall we say of the lawyer? Of all the 
men who ought to be governed by Conscience, who should 
seek an active, controlling Conscience, none would find it 
more to his interest and advancement than the lawyer. 
Let a lawyer lay it down as a rule that he will not take 
any case unless he can carry his conscience into it with 
him, and he will not lose so many cases. Let all do this, 
and what a diminution of lawsuits we would have. There 
would be no one to take the wrong side, and the poor fel- 



CONSCIENCE. 65 

lows would have to settle the trouble without going to 
court. 

But I need not enumerate. We want Conscience so 
active in all that they will do an honest day's work, sell 
an honest pound, stick to the right, be found on the side 
of justice. 



IX. —DIGNITY— SELF-ESTEEM- 
ARROGANCE. 



-pride- 



One man is dignified, self-poised, relies on self, believes 
in self, is a Dorn leader, directs his own operations, governs 
himself; another has no confidence in himself, does not 
care how low you find him, thinks he can never accomplish 
anything, asks advice of every one and tries to follow it all, 
making a failure, has no " head of his own/' must always 

work under some one else. 
Why this difference? Phre- 
nology explains it. Man has 
this mental faculty of Dig- 
nity, Self-esteem. If its or- 
gan, which is in the very 
back part of the upper 
head, just where it turns 
down, is large and active, 
his character will show it. 
He will be the first man 
described. If this faculty 
be weak, he will show de- 
Fig. 8.-GEO.B A NCROFT.-FIRMNESS fipipriov in f ]ipnitv and SPlf- 

and self-esteem large. nciency in dignity and seit- 

respect. 
This is an important faculty in character. There is a 
saying, in which there is much truth, that we get what we 
demand, what we claim for ourselves, that the world will 
not estimate us above what we claim for ourselves. This 
is largely true. An important element in success in any 
line is to have confidence in our own ability, and perfect 
control of self — so perfect that we can make self do what 
we ought to do, whether we want to do it or not. This is 
almost education complete— ability to do a thing, confi- 

(C6j 





DIGNITY AND SUBMISSION. 



DIGNITY — SELF-ESTEEM — PRIDE — ARROGANCE. 67 

dence in self that you can do it, and power to so control 
self as to make self do as he ought. This the faculty 
under consideration largely does. To do this it must be 
trained, cultivated, in the right direction. It is very un- 
fortunate that our present methods of school and home in- 
struction do not train this faculty. We do for the child 
instead of directing him, compelling him to do for self. 
The teacher learns the lesson, prepares the lecture, and 
pours it out on the pupil, and is furious because it does not 
go in. The teacher studies government, learns its princi- 
ples, and tries to govern the pupil. Such a course is ruin- 
ous to the pupil. Let it be repeated: Self-government 
is the only government worth having ; self -development the 
only development. Let pupils in school, children in homes, 
have the early duty and responsibility of governing self. 
Any other plan is suicidal for the children. God has given 
us this mental faculty which gives us faith and trust in 
and control of self, and for another to try to do these 
things for us deprives us of a part of ourself, and makes 
us dependent, slavish. 

This faculty gives satisfaction with self, says " Well 
done," if it is well done, and feels a great pleasure in hav- 
ing done it for self and by self. Let students compare the 
pleasure felt when the teacher has solved a problem for 
them, with that felt when they have done it for them- 
selves. Remember, the right exercise of mental faculties 
always brings pleasure, and only pleasure. 

A feeling of worth and dignity is what the Creator en- 
dowed us with by giving us this faculty. " Ye are of more 
value than many sparrows." God created nothing but is 
of worth, how valuable we can not comprehend; but man 
is worth more than all else. In fact, all else was made for 
man, not man for it. " The Sabbath was made for man, 
not man for the Sabbath." It is true man fell from the 
high estate in which he was placed, but he did not lose 
all the resemblance to God, the image in which he was 



68 SHORT TALKS. 

made. How perfect and almost infinite is man's mental- 
ity. Such a creature is not a " worm of the dust," except 
comparatively. As compared with what we ought to have 
been, and what we shall yet be if we live aright, we are 
weak and low; but as compared with all other of God's 
creation — and none are low or mean, it was all " good " 
— man is incomprehensibly great and powerful. Let him 
so estimate himself, and in and of his own God-given 
power and might, do something for himself, make some- 
thing of himself. 

This feeling should keep us from the bad, from doing 
the wrong, from bad company, from wicked thoughts. 
One who has this faculty active will feel and say, "I am 
above that. I can not stoop to enter that degrading 
place." This is a commendable feeling. One of God's 
greatest and best creatures should be above the bad and 
the wicked. This is true pride, the kind that does not go 
before a downfall, but keeps us from the downfall. One 
who thinks much of self in the right spirit will not act the 
degrading part, but will so carry himself as to be above 
suspicion. 

This reliance on self, belief in self, satisfaction with self, 
gives a desire to be one's own self in the hereafter. Some 
have very strange notions of our life beyond the grave, 
and ask, " Will we know each other there?" A question 
which will settle it all is, " Will we be ourselves there?" 
Our consciousness, our desires, our hope, answer this. 
An existence which is not ourself would not be immortal- 
ity, but simply transmigration. I desire to be myself 
there, you desire to be yourself. None of us would change 
places with any one. This desire God will fill, and we 
shall " know each other there," since our existence is not 
changed, but only continued and widened. 

If this faculty is strong, it is easily perverted. It gives 
pride in the bad sense, and arrogance and a domineering, 
ovei'bearing, tyraunical disposition; a tendency to think 



DIGNITY — SELF-ESTEEM — PRIDE — ARROGANCE. 69 

more highly of one's self than one ought. With little in- 
telligence this is unbearable, and it spoils great intellects; 
that is, it spoils their influence. Only children are apt to 
have this feeling. Those who have been made much of, 
children educated in the "select" schools, are often 
spoiled with it. Our " common " schools are great bless- 
ings in more ways than one. They allow the high to be 
placed alongside of the common, and this often takes out 
much of the starch and foolish pride. Parents often spoil 
children by early impressing them with the idea that they 
are better than any one else's children. This is self-esteem 
in the wrong direction, and should be watched for and cor- 
rected by parents, rather than encouraged. 



X.— CASH AGAINST CREDIT. 

Our artist has presented the results well and truly. 
This is the end of it. This is what each leads to. Cash 
payments bring ease, independence, prosperity, content- 
ment, happiness, health, and wealth. Behold all these in 
the person and surroundings of him who " pays as he 
goes!" He is now, in his advanced years, enjoying a well- 
earned reputation for honestly, uprightness and com- 
mercial integrity. How is it with our friend on the mule? 
His face aud person tell the story, and what a story! How 
the heart aches to see to what he has come! How hard 
that expression! How deserted that look! li "No man 
careth for my soul." Should we follow him home, we 
would find matters equally uncomfortable. There are no 
comforts and modern conveniences in Ms home, no books 
and education for the children, no easy-chair for the tired 
wife and mother. The children look sad and lonely. 
Why? " Father is in debt, and can not pay. Hard times 
are upon us." The mother, once light-hearted, gay, joy- 
ous, and buoyant with hope, is now despondent and hope- 
less. Why? " The debts are past due, and we can not 
meet them." 

Why these widely different results? These two men 
were not always so far apart. Thoy had about an even 
start. We can remember when both were much younger 
than now. They had about equal advantages. What, 
then, caused the difference? Let them tell the story. " 1 
pay cash." " I go it on a credit." There you have it. 
That is enough. That gives the reason. Further ex- 
planation is unnecessary. We now know the cause of the 
prosperity and the failure; the joy and the sorrow; the 

(70) 



Q 



Q 
O 



O 

o 

d 




CASH AGAINST CREDIT. 71 

sunshine and the shadow; the gladness and the gloom; the 
abundance and the rags; the fatness and the leanness. 
Cash payments have brought the one; the credit system 
the other. These two commercial methods are responsible 
for the widely different results. " Going it on a credit " 
has brought its accustomed ruin in ks wake. It always 
does. It can not fail. Its causes are unerring, its effects 
unfailing. This poor man stands for thousands who have 
tried it. If persisted in, its results are unvarying. There 
is no good to come oat of the credit system. Examine it 
in the light of reason. Look at it from all sides. Think 
on it with care. What does it do? 

1. It increases the price of everything. 

This alone is enough to make every thoughtful man stop 
and turn about. Compare the price you must pay for 
everything you buy on a credit with price of same for cash. 
You can not afford it. Pay-day may be some time in the 
future, but these high prices must be met, these debts 
must be paid when money is as scarce and as high as now, 
maybe more so. You can not pay fifty to one hundred 
per cent, more just because some one can credit you six or 
ten months. Do you not know that you can not make 
this high rate on your investment? Do you not know 
that your labor can never reach this? 

Working-men and farmers may orgauize, and print 
papers, and make speeches, and petition government, hut 
so long as they buy on a credit they can never prosper. 
The prices are against them. They get cash prices for 
work and produce; they pay credit prices for purchases* 
The difference is fifty to one hundred per cent. It can 
not be overcome. 

2. The credit system leads to speculation. 
It fosters it, makes it possible, demands it. 

It is very common to hear a vender of merchandise say 
he can not make anything if he sells for cash only. The 
margins are too narrow, the buyers too sharp, competition 



72 SHORT TALKS. 

is too close; but let him sell on a credit and get customers 
bound to him as so many slaves, very serfs, and then he 
can make all the profit his conscience will permit him to 
put on. He can then grow rich in a few years, if he can 
only collect a part of his debts. Call this honest com- 
mercial business who will, it is downright speculation on 
the unearned wages of the poor, a speculation on muscle 
and blood and life. 

3. It leads to extravagance. 

" It can be charged " is so easy. " We can have it " is 
often the decision, when if the money must be paid now 
the conclusion is " We can not afford it. " The farmer 
who is buying on credit often brings back more goods from 
town in a single day than his more sensible neighbor who 
pays the cash can afford to buy in a whole year. The very 
fewest men are not extravagant when buying on a credit; 
while the fewest are when paying the cash. 

No man can obey the injunction, " Live within your in- 
come/' and buy on credit. He does not know what his 
income is going to be. He is spending that which he has 
not, which is really not his. "JN'o man knows what he can 
pay one year ahead when he must yet make it all. He is 
extravagant even of his thoughts to try to estimate it. He 
soon grows extravagant of words and promises. And soon 
extravagance hath eaten him up, killed him outright. 

4. It leads to careless buying. 

In these days of want of conscience in the commercial 
world, it behooves every buyer to keep his eyes open. It 
is not every pound that contains sixteen ounces, nor every 
yard that measures full thirty-six inches. The general 
and almost universal cry is, that nearly all manufactured 
goods are short. Yet how easily are we deceived in these 
when we get them on a credit. We possibly think they 
are as good as the pay, and that we do well to get them at 
all. 

Often persons buying on credit do not inquire the price 



CASH AGAINST CREDIT. 73 

of articles, but take them along to be " charged." Quality 
and price are not of much consequence; to get the goods 
is the thing. How can such buying bring aught but fail- 
ure and ruin to the buyer? 

5. The credit system requires large sums of money on 
pay-day. 

It is very easy to do great things by littles, but exceed- 
ingly difficult to do little things all at once. God could 
not, did nof, do His creating all at once. Day after day 
He worked at it. Time is an element in all things human 
and Divine, earthly and heavenly. Time, present time 
only, is given in which to do the things of the present. 
" Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof." Oh, that 
we could learn this lesson from our Heavenly Father and 
His works! " Give us this day our daily bread." " Take 
no thought for the morrow." If we would only provide 
for each day as God has done in His great economic plans 
of nature! If we would be happy, we must do so. It is 
a Divine law; to violate it brings misery. 

Little accounts are so easily settled, little debts so 
easily paid. If we would only pay as we go for our 
earthly needs, and " lay by us in store on the first 
day of the week as the Lord has prospered us " for 
the Lord's cause, how happy we might be. If we would 
follow the Divine plan, the natural plan, in all things, 
rather than hunt out ways that are dark and plans that 
are failures in both our business and that of the Lord's 
house, He would prosper us " many fold " in lands and 
houses, friends and homes. 

6. It increases laiv suits. 

Men who do not " run accounts," rarely go to law. 
They have no need to do so. They pay the cash, get their 
rights, and are free and happy without appealing to Caesar. 
But how often men must go to law to settle a disputed ac- 
count? Three fourths of civil suits involve the collecting 
of some debt. How happy would we be if we would only 



74 SHORT TALKS. 

obey that Divine command: " Owe no man any thing but 
to love one another !" It is strange that we will not. Man 
feels so wise and so great that he can not abide by the de- 
cisions of the All-Wise, but must in all thiugs hunt out 
ways for himself. Well, he must pay dear for his whistle; 
that is one result. 

7. It makes men careless of obligation. 

This is a sad result of the system. No man who buys 
on credit can meet all his obligations. All must at some 
time ask for extension of time. This is the history of all 
of them: first, asking for time, then desiring to shun, 
pleading statute of limitation, and putting off payment in 
all possible ways. Debts will press. That is their nature. 
Then good men begin to feel that pressure, and must do 
something to relieve it. Oh, what a temptation to shun 
an obligation! How many men have broken promise for 
the first time in a matter of debt payment? At first, little 
promises are broken, then great contracts violated. Men 
get used to being in debt, used to being pressed, used to 
making promises, used to breaking them, all because they 
at some time lost good sense and traded on a credit. 

8. It makes men slaves. 

In more senses than one is this true. Men who seek 
credit, usually have not the wherewith to pay, so they must 
bind themselves. Few realize how complete and servile 
and degrading is slavery for debt. True, men may not 
now be made to work for the creditor as real servants, but 
they are bound to him all the same. How few ever free 
themselves from this bondage! The chains grow heavier 
and more binding year by year. The debt grows more and 
more. 

The unpaid balance is easily kept out of the reach of the 
debtor. The exorbitant prices which he must pay make it 
almost impossible for him to " come out at the end of the 
year.* 3 The profits are so great that the creditor may not 
be anxious for him to get out. He can carry him for a 



CASH AGAINST CREDIT. 75 

few hundred and still make a good profit. So the poor 
man continues bound, lives in fetters, and dies in slavery. 
Oh the bondage of debt! and how many an otherwise free 
and independent spirit has all the freedom, all the life 
crushed out of it. Young men, as you value freedom, 
personal and social, as you rejoice in your American birth- 
right of liberty, do not contract debt and become bound 
by its galling fetters. It is violative of the spirit of our 
institutions, as well as that of our Divine religion. 

9. It causes failures in "business and financial crises. 
How else could they come about? Did you ever hear of 

a man's being " closed out," unless he owed some one? 
It was all for debt. Had he bought and sold for cash, he 
could have snapped his fingers at failures and financial 
crises, and gone on, on, straight on. But failure to col- 
lect brings failure to pay, and this failure goes from one 
end of the earth to the other. Hundreds suffer in a single 
day from one man's inability to pay. To shun all this, to 
be sure never to fail, pay spot cash. So many men de- 
plore the fate of our merchants. They make money, 
flourish for a long time, maybe grow rich, but finally lose 
it all and go under. Why? Because they had traded on, 
and trusted promises to pay; in other words, have " gone 
it on a credit." 

The man who buys and sells for cash can not fail in 
business; and if all did this, disasters and financial crises 
could not come. 

10. The credit system almost doubles the luork of busi- 
ness. 

Business cares and business labors and worries should be 
closed in with the office and store door at evening; but not 
so with the man who is " running accounts." The long 
ledger must be carried home at night, and the hard work 
must be done. Time which ought to be spent in pleasure, 
self-improvement, or deeds of charity, is spent in keeping 
accounts. Then comes a long, hard job of collecting. 



76 SHORT TALKS. 

Work, work, to make and arrange the accounts, and work, 
work, work, to collect them, when all might have been 
minimized by paying the cash. 

11. The credit system is anti- Christian. 

It does not minister to individual piety, but quite the 
reverse; it does not feed the poor nor clothe the naked, 
but it robs the weak of their honest toil; it does not ele- 
vate and purify, but it degrades and weakens morals; it 
does not obey the Master, but sets His teachings at naught. 

But why inveigh further against this " system"? Can 
any good come out of it? Is it not wholly and altogether 
bad, and that continually? It offers only failure and ruin 
financially, and weakness and depravity morally and spir- 
itually. Then discard it, shun it, have none of it, run 
from it; escape, and save yourself and yours. 



XL— AMBITION-LOVE OF APPROBATION- 
VANITY. 

" A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." 

There are very few who do not desire the good opinion, 
the good wishes, the kind words of all. This sentiment 
arises from a special mental faculty, since all normal minds 
have it. Some there are who do not care, maybe, what 




i ; . ■" '•/> ^<--~ ? ' ■ 



Fig. 9.— MRS. E. D. E. N. SOUTHWORTH.— AMBITION LARGE. 

others say. Such minds are abnormal and usually not far 
from ruin. Just as one who can do all manner of wicked- 
ness without any conscientious feelings has long time vio- 
lated Conscience so one who can truthfully say, " 1 do 

(77) 



78 SHORT TALKS. 

not care what others think or say of me/' has used wrong- 
ly his Love of Approbation. 

This faculty, desiring the good wishes of others, prompts 
us to work for it, makes us polite, discreet, and sometimes 
politic. It adapts us to company, society, friends. It 
acts with or on nearly all faculties. If Casuality gains his 
suit, we enjoy the approval of the world; if Acquisition 
gains wealth, it is much more enjoyable because of the Ap- 
proval of others; and so on with all our mental operations. 

While we live in the world we are influenced by those 
who are around us, and we influence them. A good question 
is, " What effect will this have on my neighbors, on the 
world?" Yet it should never get in ahead of the ques- 
tion, ' 4 Is it right?" Policy must not take the precedence 
of principle. Our friends and neighbors should have our 
consideration, we should seek their approval, but we should 
not let this feeling govern us. One thus governed soon 
loses self-respect, seeks the opinion of every one, tries to 
please all, and fails to please any. No person, possibly, 
needs better balanced Self-esteem and Love of Approba- 
tion than the teacher. If he have too much of the former, 
he is too apt to be a domineering tyrant; if too much of 
the latter, he seeks to please each one of his patrons at the 
expense of all the rest, himself and the school. He does 
all things to please; he " teaches flat or round, as the pa- 
trons want it." Such a teacher, such a person, is indeed 
a slave to others, and without independence. 

In the government of children this is sometimes a good 
faculty to which to appeal, but there is much danger of 
perverting it by making this appeal too often. If we ask 
the child every time, " What will So-and-So think of you 
if you do this?" he is apt to learn to ask himself this ques- 
tion first. Another serious mistake of educators is to ap- 
peal to this faculty every day with prizes and places of 
honor. Getting prizes and gaining honors should not be 
the things which draw children to school and keep them at 



AMBITION — LOVE OF APPROBATION — VANITY. 7'.) 

work. If the work be such as the child ought to do, aud 
be presented by natural methods, there will be no need of 
prizes and "rolls of honor.' ' Nine times in ten the 
schools using these methods are teaching contrary to nat- 
ure, wanting in common-sense methods, and are despised 
by nearly all those who do not get on the " roll of honor " 
or get a prize; and a large majority do neither. 

Yet sometimes the most deserving do not get any prizes 
in these systems. Effort should be rewarded with the 
same commendation as success. Commendation, praise, 
then, becomes a great factor in training, in helping to build 
the character of those around us; but all who deserve it, 
ail who try to succeed, must receive this commendation. 
The pupil who works, the child who wishes to do right and 
tries, the wife who does her best to prepare a good dinner, 
the husband who makes an effort to support and provide 
for family, should have the commendation of those whose 
opinion they value, even though they fail. Blame never, 
praise ever, where there is effort. Praise of effort nerves 
for a stronger, more determined effort, and almost insures 
success; blame reverses all effort and insures failure. 
There are few feelings quite so killing as that coming from 
the censure of one we respect and love when we have made 
a faithful effort. So, we see, this faculty is a mighty one 
to play on in getting service, work done, obedience; yet a 
nice one, and liable to be perverted. Scolding always 
makes the one scolded feel, if he does not say, " I don't 
care. 1 won't try any more. " Remember this, you scold- 
ing husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, and teachers. 
Scolding never did any one any good. Remember this, 
you preachers, who by men's plans have been elevated to 
places where you can " lord it over God's heritage." 

As before stated, this faculty acts on and with nearly 
or all others. Many go to bloody battle by its prompt- 
ings. A man is insulted, treated outrageously, and for 
fear some one will say or even think him a coivard, he 



80 SHORT TALKS. 

fights. This is itself cowardice of the weakest kind. 
When the world is so far advanced in civilization as to 
look on fighting and warring aright, pretty women and 
matchless orators will no longer cause bloodshed by com- 
mending the bravery of the murderer. When men are 
governed by reason and conscience, rather than love of 
praise and fear of censure, nations will hardly " learn war 
any more." 

Being led by Love of Approbation rather than common 
sense gives us our " fashions," our foolish and wicked 
fashions. Would any woman pinch her foot until she 
hobbles along lamed, every step bringing pain, but for her 
love of approbation? Would any man wear shoes sharp 
enough to go right through a dog at a single kick, if he 
were placed in an island all alone? Behold what follies 
and sins in fashion, what piles of hair all over the head 
and clear down to the eyebrows, what squeezing of waists, 
what tortures of clothing, all because some one else says it 
is the thing to do! "What a sin thus to pervert a God- 
given faculty to such a use! One is ashamed not to be in 
the fashion, and is kept in-doors, away from the church of 
God (?), because he has not the means to go in the fash- 
ion. Love of Approbation should act with common sense 
and Conscience, rather than go it alone, or lead. A per- 
version of this faculty produces vanity, a feeling most fool- 
ish of the foolish, and compared with which pride is a 
saint. Dr. Gall, the discoverer of Phrenology, says: 
" The proud man is imbued with a sentiment of his own 
superior merit, and from the summit of his grandeur 
treats with contempt or indifference all other mortals; the 
vain man attaches the utmost importance to the opinions 
entertained of him by others, and seeks with eagerness to 
gain their approbation. The proud man expects that 
mankind will come to him and acknowledge his merits; 
the vain man knocks at every door to draw attention to- 
ward him, and supplicates for the smallest portion of 



AMBITION — LOVE OF APPROBATION — VANITY. 81 

honor. The proud man despises those marks of distinc- 
tion which on the vain confer the most perfect delight. 
The proud man is disgusted by indiscreet eulogiums; the 
vain man inhales with ecstasy the incense of flattery, al- 
though profu elv offered, and by no very skillful hand/' 
Mrs. Ellis has said: " Those who live on vanity must not 
unreasonably expect to die of mortification." 

Let us study ourselves, our own actions, especially our 
public conduct, and be sure we are not being led by Love 
of Approbation at the sacrifice of conscience and common 
sense. 



XIL— FIRMNESS— OBSTINACY— STUBBORNNESS. 



Be ye steadfast, immovable; always abounding in the work of 
the Lord.— Paul. 

Firmness, regularity, sameness, is an attribute of all 
Nature. The " everlasting hills " stand where they did 
the first we knew of them; the giant oaks come up, take 
root and grow in the same place. The Earth itself keeps 

i t s steady, un- 
changed course 
among the stars. 
The Great Author 
of all this stability 
i s Himself the 
personification of 
Firmness, " from 
e v e r 1 a s ting to 
everlasting. " 

To put us in re- 
lation with this 
plan of Nature 
our Creator must 
endow us with a 
mental faculty 
that can under- 
stand and appre- 
ciate the idea of 
All have it; some make 
about by " every wind 




Fig. 10.— WADE HAMPTON.— FIRMNESS LARGE. 

firmness. This He has done, 
poor use of it, and are driven 



use 

of doctrine/' ever changing and looking after some 
new idea, and never one thing long enough to let 
you find where they are. How we do admire firm- 
ness, even though it be somewhat severe. " Back- 
bone " is its common name. We want 

(82> 



men m every 




: _^ r .- ._ . 



PEOF. H. A. DEAN. 

FIRMNESS LARGE, 




FIRMNESS — OBSTINACY — STUBBORNNESS. 83 

walk of life with this quality — firm, stable, immova- 
ble; pillars of Church and State; constant, reliable, unfail- 
ing; tough and strong for the right; willing to stand, and, 
having done all, to stand. Let this faculty work with rea- 
son and conscience, and its motto is: " Be sure you are 
right, and then go ahead. " Let investigation come first. 
It is not so good for a man to be immovable in the wrong. 
Get right and remain so. Find your bush and stick to it. 
Seek the truth until you find it. Do not let go until the 
blessing comes. Make persistent effort. Persevere in the 
right. Swerve not from the straight and narrow way. 
Hold fast to the promises. Believe constantly that success 
will come. " Blessed are they that endure to the end." 

There is possibly no one thing on which so much de- 
pends in our character as firmness. Therefore, its cultiva- 
tion becomes an important item in education. What is 
knowledge without it? How weak and wavery are some 
men with "all knowledge!" They have lost the image 
of the Creator. Half-way work at school will not culti- 
vate it. There must be persistence. Never give over. 
Do not let children at home quit a thing until it is fin- 
ished. Encourage them to stick to all play and work till 
the thing is done. Encourage them to stand. Petting 
and babying will spoil this faculty. Let the boy early 
feel that he is of some worth. Let him stand alone, make 
his own money and handle it, help the weak, support the 
fallen. 

The child who is always restrained and acted for will 
never have a chance to cultivate firmness. We do too 
much for children. They naturally want to do for self. 
Let them. Help them by encouragement, but do not say, 
" You can't do that. Let me do it for you." Always 
say, " You can. Try." 

There is a firmness which amounts to obstinacy, to stub- 
bornness. This I would not have you seek, and if we take 
the time to investigate carefully before we fix our notions, 



84 SHORT TALKS. 

we are not apt to be stubborn. The man who is in the 
wrong is more apt to be obstinate. Believing that he may 
be wrong, he summons all his Firmness to make up for 
what he lacks of principle, and thus learns to be mulish. 
The " Be sure you are right " has not come first with him. 
A most important use to which this faculty is put, or 
should be put, is the resisting of temptations. We are 
always so sorry for the poor weakling who " can't help 
it." He gives way to temptation once, twice, thrice, and 
grows weaker and weaker. He promises himself, his 
loved ones at home, his God, that no more will he yield to 
the tempter; but, alas! No youth is master of himself 
until he can say No, and mean it, and stick to it. Every 
one should have such a bearing and such a tone that one 
denial to the tempter will drive him away; but if he have 
not this, let him have power to say No, again and again, 
until the temptation passes away. " Resist the devil, and 
he will flee from you." This is done by the mental 
faculty, Firmness. 



XIII.— VENERATION— WORSHIP— IS THERE 

A GOD? 

What greater calamity can befall a nation than the loss of wor- 
ship? — Emerson. 

In all Nature's work there is perfect adaptation. Noth- 
ing is made but has its specific use, nothing is made in 




Fig. 11.— REV. E. D. MURPHY.— VENERATION LARGE. 



vain, nothing is made for itself alone. Every created 
thing has its companion in nature, that for which it is 
made, or which was made for it. Everything uses some- 
thing else, or is used by something else. If there were 

(85) 



86 SHORT TALKS. 

cast on our Earth a being from another world, and on ex- 
amination it was found to have eyes to see with, we should 
know at once that the world whence it came is a world of 
light; for had the animal grown in a dark world it would 
have had no need for eyes, and Nature would not have 
given them, since she does nothing but is necessary, and 
gives nothing but is to be used. 

Examining our animal further, we find it possessed of 
ears to hear with; therefore, the world where it lived was 
a world of sounds, since ears are adapted to sound, and this 
is their only use. The ears, you see, prove conclusively 
the existence of sound. A further examination shows the 
animal has lungs; therefore, the home he came from has 
an atmosphere, since lungs are adapted to air, and their 
only use is to breathe air. Further illustration is not 
necessary. The reader can carry the analogy to any de- 
sired number of cases. The proof is positive, as unmis- 
takable and undeniable as a mathematical demonstration. 
Now, there is in man the mental faculty — with its organ 
right in the top of the brain — of Worship. Man has been 
called the worshiping animal. 

The natural man worships. It does not take civiliza- 
tion, enlightenment, or education to make him a worship- 
ing being. In the barbarian, in the savage, in the half- 
civilized, in the rude, in the white man, the black man, 
the yellow man, in all mankind there is this propensity to 
worship. It does not enlighten him as to what to worship, 
or how to worship, but simply gi^es him the worshiping 
feeling. This mental faculty does not know anything; it 
is not one of the knowing faculties; it is simply and only a 
feeling that moves man to worship. He may worship the 
sun, the moon, the winds, the thunder, the Earth, ani- 
mals, images made with his own hands, but worship he 
will and must. Why? Because he has in his mental con- 
stitution this primal worshiping faculty. But the sun, 
great and good and powerful as it is, is unworthy of man's 



VENERATION" — WORSHIP — IS THERE A GOD ? 8? 

worship. The Earth, with all its grandeur, its beauty and 
its exquisite loveliness, is unworthy of man's worship. The 
brazen images, the golden engravings which his own hands 
have made, are wholly unworthy of man's worship. But 
since man worships, there must be something for him to 
worship, something eminently worthy of man's sincere 
veneration. Otherwise Nature would never have given 
him this worshiping faculty. But what is worthy? Who 
is great enough to receive man's veneration? None but a 
Being great, good, all-powerful, all-wise, intelligent, su- 
preme. Therefore, there is such a Being. God's exist- 
ence, then, is demonstrated, proved as clearly and as un- 
mistakably and as finally as was ever any proposition in 
mathematics. And not only His existence is proved, but 
His characteristics. Man, with his greatness, his goodness, 
his love, his wisdom, his justice, his benevolence, his 
almost infinite intelligence, must have in the God he 
should worship all these attributes in perfection. Thanks 
to Phrenology for this demonstration, this scientific proof 
of God and His attributes. Ministers of our holy religion 
sometimes sneer at Phrenology and call it materialism. 
Brethren, when you do so you insult your best friend 
among the known sciences. What other science will give 
this proof? Not one. '* Then speak right out in meeting " 
in favor of Phrenology, for when you oppose it you only 
show your lack of wisdom. Learn Phrenology, and take it 
along with your Bible to show God's existence and power 
to the unbelieving. Behold in Phrenology, as did Horace 
Mann, " the handmaid of Christianity." 

A few words on the use of this faculty. As has been 
said, it does not show us how to worship, but only moves 
us to worship, to sacrifice to a higher power. Man had to 
have this faculty to put him in relation with God. Did 
he not have it, he could not worship, though his intellect 
might believe God is. Without intelligence, he worships 
something. Intellect teaches him what to worship. Sq 



88 SHORT TALKS. 

this faculty, and this faculty alone, makes man a worshiper. 
Religious worship, then, does not depend on intellect, on 
learning. The weakest intellect, the most unlearned, can 
worship God. Stand in awe, ye worldly wise men, in 
view of this fact, and respect the worship of the most 
ignorant and unlearned! God's people should all be in- 
telligent, and even learned, but He does not choose them 
and love them for these things. Behold, He has " chosen 
the weak things of this world to confound the mighty!" 

The exercise of worship in one person excites it in another 
who is near. This is a law of Nature. Any mental 
faculty in exercise arouses in another the same feeling or 
thought. So we are not to " forsake the assembling our- 
selves together " to worship. There is not now among 
Christians enough worship. They go to church to hear 
preaching, but not to worship. Worship always benefits, 
preaching may not. Therefore, worship often. Prayer 
meetings, worshiping meetings, " praise " meetings, ex- 
perience meetings are the very best. Have these by all 
means. A church that can not live without a preacher 
for quite awhile ought to die. Do not understand me to 
undervalue the minister, by any means. But I fear he is 
overvalued by too many church members. He is their 
sine qua non. This ought not to be. 

Worshiping makes us like the Being we worship. 1 can 
not begin to think to the end of this proposition. Can 
you, my reader? Like God, more and more like God! 
Drawn nearer, nearer, still nearer every time we bow be- 
fore Him in real earnest. What are the possibilities of 
fallen man? Possibilities and responsibilities! " Thou 
shalt have no other gods before Me." " Thou shalt not 
take the name of thy God in vain/' " Worship the Lord 
in the beauty of holiness." "Walk humbly with thy 
God." " Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the in- 
habitants of the world stand in awe of Him." "The 
Lord is a jealous God, ' 



VENERATION — WORSHIP — IS THERE A GOD ? 89 

Our Creator gives us this faculty to be used in worship- 
ing Him, and He requires our whole heart- worship. What 
does He think of those who have found a better way than 
He reveals, who have made for themselves statutes of wor- 
ship and praise, and have largely set aside His word and 
His will as revealed in His word? What is man that he 
should write a book directing me how to worship the Lord, 
who has revealed Himself to me in His own word? Away 
with all substitutes for God's Word! If they contain less 
than is in the Bible, they do not contain enough; if they 
contain more, they have too much; if the same, they are 
of no use, since we have the New Testament — Last Cove- 
nant — about as cheap as we can get any book. Besides, 
these " forms of worship," these written prayers, render 
dry and spiritless the worship of God. One is taught to 
M say his prayers," to read his prayers, to worship God in 
form only. This is substituting the letter for the spirit, 
the likeness for the real. Oh, that men would praise the 
Lord, follow the Lord, trust in the Lord, believe fully in 
the Lord, and forsake the traditions and commandments 
of men! " In vain do they worship, teaching for doctrine 
the commandments of men." Bryant has said: 

'* Ah! why 
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect 
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 
Only among the crowd, and under roofs 
That our frail hands have reared?" 

Yes; why should we lose all the good there is in worship 
by the cold, stiff, formal surroundings? Why should we 
not worship God from the heart and with the heart, rather 
than from the book and with the tongue? Blessings on 
the man who loves the primitive Christianity, and delights 
in the good old ways, and labors to teach the doctrines 
from the Word of God alone! 



XIV.— OUB SOCIAL SIDE. 



Whateveb is for our good God has given us. He made 
us to live in families, in communities, in homes, to live as 

parent and child, as 
husband and wife, as 
male and female. 
This demands of us 
social nature, and we 
have it. The normal 
exercise of any men- 
tal faculty brings 
pleasure and benefits. 
This is none the less 
true of the social 
faculties. 

T h e organs of 
brain man'festing 
these feelings are 
situated in the back 
head, and in pnypor- 
tionas this is full and 
long from the ears 
backward will an in- 
dividual have the social feelings strong. Among these 
feelings we find: 

AMATFVEXESS, OR LOVE OF OPPOSITE SEX. 

This feeling is no less pure, good, holy and beneficent 
than Kindness. God gave it. All living things have it. 
" Male and female created He theni." God sexed all ani- 
mate nature, man not less but more, for He intended that 
he should get more pleasure from the exercise of this 

(90) 




Fig. 1; 



J. H. MAYNARD.-SOCIAL 
ORGANS LARGE. 



OUR SOCIAL SIDE. 91 

faculty than any other animal, iu proportion as he is 
nobler, higher and better. 

This feeling gives regard and tender feeling— love — for 
the other sex as such. Boys love girls better than boys, 
sisters better than brothers. Girls love boys and brothers. 
How tender and loving they are to each other! Does the 
brother ever feel more of the man than when he goes out 
with his little sister, and is to take care of her? What 
would he not do for her? He is her protector. And 
how fondly, tenderly, confidingly, and lovingly she trusts 
in him! And so it is later on in life with this boy 
and some other boy's sister. He will be as tender and 
loving to her as he was to his own. See him — how polite, 
and gallant, and attentive, and manly! This Amativeness 
does. It makes the boy manly and the girl womanly — 
not manish and womanish. Foolishness, prudishness, 
fashion does this. When teachers and parents try to stop 
the exercise of this mental faculty by not allowing the 
boys and girls to speak when in the same school, when 
they carry this still further and separate them, putting the 
boys in one school all to themselves, and the girls in an- 
other all to themselves, with maybe a high wall around it, 
so no male eye can even look in, they are violating a law 
of nature and sinning against God. Co-education is the 
only perfect education; and no matter how much an indi- 
vidual learns in the other way, he comes from the school 
one-sided and lacking in social development. The sexes 
were created and put in the world, in the same families, to 
be and dwell together, and he who separates them does 
violence to God's plans. 

Another of these feelings that wise (?) men have tried to 
violate, set aside and annul, is — 

UNION" FOR LIFE — CONSTANCY. 

This is shown in many of the lower animals — mating, 
pairing, wedding. One male with one female. This 



92 SHORT TALKS. 

union among the lower animals may be for a season or for 
life. The lion, the eagle, aud many others wed for life 
and never marry a second time. 

So marriage is natural. Man is all that the highest of 
the lower animals is, and much more. Man has this 
feeling. All who teach or practice free love, or plurality 
of husbands and wives, do violence to this feeling, and 
suffer in consequence. Marriage is not merely an institu- 
tion of man, of the church, or of priests; but a natural 
law laid as deep down in human nature as any other. 
Here I will not discuss the how and the when to mate, to 
marry, but lay down this principle: " Do not begin to 
love one of the opposite sex to the exclusion of all others, 
to be mated and married to her, or him, by Nature, until 
you can continue this loving and mating all through life." 
And as a second: " Do not go through life without a 
mate — unmarried — unless you are diseased and unfit to 
marry." 

Loving and mating require a home, so we have the 
faculty — 

INHABITIVENESS — LOVE OF HOME. 

There must be homes. Back of all patriotism — love of 
country — lies the home. Desire to have a home, to live at 
home, to remain in the same house and home, comes from 
this mental faculty. Nothing, possibly, gives more pleas- 
ure, more real, earnest, deep-seated, delightful feeling than 
home. Philosophers have written of it, poets have sung 
of it, but all have not begun to express the whole of the 
feeling. Yet we Americans do not cultivate it. We roam 
and rove, aud are wont to say, " Wherever my hat is on my 
head, I am at home." This should not be. With the 
greatest country, the best government, the prettiest build- 
ing material, we should think more of home and native 
land. Let children be taught love of home at home. 
Give them an interest in the home, apartments to have as 
their own home, 



OUR SOCIAL SIDE. 93 

Make home the best place on earth for them. Have at- 
tractions, games, books, socials, at the home. Let the boys 
feel free and easy at home. Know that this love of home 
is instinctive, and only needs cultivation to give it power 
over nearly all other feelings. Some directions would be: 

1. Have a home. 

How many wander from place to place with no home? 
no friendly roof, no shelter from the blasts, no house they 
can call their own. How they pine and long for " home, 
sweet home!" Why not gratify this feeling by owning a 
home? Lands and houses are cheap here. If you can not 
get the home at one place, go to another. But by all 
means, any fair means, have a home. Own the land be- 
neath your feet. This satisfies this " mine and thine" 
feeling. 

Happy the man whose wish and care 
A few paternal acres bound, 
Content to breathe his native air 
In his own ground. 

— Pope. 

2. Beautify the home. 

In our business we may not spend enough time on home, 
and making home attractive. Build, beautify, set out 
trees, shrubs and flowers. In this way we gratify this 
" love of home " feeling, and bless those who come after us. 
How many are now living in the houses that other hands 
have reared, and resting beneath the green leaves of trees 
other hands have planted. The builder, the tree-planter, 
the home-beautifier is a benefactor. 

3. Remain at home. 

It is unfortunate that our boys and girls can not be edu- 
cated largely at home. Every community ought to have 
its high school, where this could be done. It is dangerous 
in many respects to send boys and girls away from home 
to school, but the worst thing may be they will lose some 
of their Jove for home. Keep the boys and girls at home 



94 SHORT TALKS. 

as long as you can. When they are ready, however, to go 
into their own home, let them go and build. 

4. Write home. 

So many of us are away from home necessarily — at 
school, at our work, separated from the dear old home, 
the parents, the brothers and sisters, the old play-grounds, 
and every loved spot which our childhood knows; but, 
thanks to our perfect mail service and fast trains, we can 
hear from home and write home. This let us do. I am 
always suspicious of the boy or the girl who can say, at 
school: "I have not heard from home in a month." 
There must be something the matter with that home or 
that son or daughter. Let us not forget to send the dear 
ones at home a letter every week, and let the dear ones at 
home not forget the wanderer, the school-boy or girl, the 
one who must go away from home. Write him a letter 
from the dear old home. 

" Cling to thy home! if there the meanest shed 
Yield thee a hearth and a shelter for thy head, 
And some poor plot, with vegetables stored, 
Be all that Heaven allots thee for thy board, 
Unsavory bread, and herbs that scattered grow 
Wild on the river-brink, or mountain-brow, 
Set e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide 
More heart's repose than all the world beside." 

By husband and wife, in these homes, children must be 
raised. This is the Great Creator's purpose in making us 
male and female, in endowing us with the marrying 
faculty, in giving us such love of home that the species 
may be propagated, that children may be well formed and 
correctly raised. So He has given us the mental faculty — 

LOVE OF CHILDREN. 

This gives us love of children, as children, own offspring 
and others. There must needs be this feeling, this mental 
faculty. Children are helpless. They must have months 



OUR SOCIAL side. 95 

and years of care, attention and love. God has arranged 
that this shall be pleasant. What joy exceeds it? Watch 
that young mother, whether fowl, beast, or human, and 
see how this faculty acts. Can there be any devotion 
stronger or more pleasant to the one feeling it? Say, all 
you mothers, and all those who have and love children, is 
there any feeling which goes quite so deep? Is there any 
sorrow that equals that of the mother for her only off- 
spring? It is strong in all animals, stronger in female 
than male, strongest in woman. Let it be cultivated in 
children, especially the little girls. Let them have dolls 
even before they can talk or walk. See how they love them, 
caress them, and how sweetly they talk their little baby 
talk to them. This is nature. This is the voice of God, 
and is truth. Let it speak right out in all. Take time to 
watch and love the children, ye busy fathers. They teach 
us ten thousand lessons in nature, if we will only learn. 
He who studies animals and children becomes wise. 

Those who have this faculty large make good teachers, 
and as mothers they are apt to spoil the children, not with 
too much love, but with too little firmness and judgment 
in their management. 

All these feelings have their basis in the difference in 
sex. But there is a strong, pure, sweet feeling not found- 
ed on sex existing between men and men, women and 
women, women and men, creatures and creatures. This is — 

FRIENDSHIP. 

God-given and capable of cultivation, to be exercised 
with good judgment, as are all the propensities and senti- 
ments, this faculty is a blessing and a continual pleasure 
to man. How dear and precious and valuable is a friend! 
With what desire do you long for one when separated! 
Let one be put in the large city with no one there whom 
he knows, and of whom he can say, " He is my friend," 
and in a few days he will begin to feel what it is to be 



90 SHORT TALKS\ 

44 without a friend/ ' and to realize that he has been get- 
ting a pleasure out of his daily association with friends 
that he knew not of. Friendship is a primal mental 
faculty, and does not depend on rank, station, or age, 
though, of course, more often exercised toward those of 
same station in life and same age, since we are more with 
them. This feeling should be cultivated in youth. Boys 
and girls should have friends. But 44 a man that would 
have friends must show himself friendly;" so must a girl 
or a boy. Exercise this God-given faculty to make friends. 
You will need them, and, oh! how pleasant they are to 
us. God always blesses us with pleasure when we obey 
His law in our hearts. 44 Behold how good and how pleas- 
ant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" 

How strong and how lasting is friendship! Read the 
story of Damon and Pythias, of David and Jonathan. 
44 The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, 
and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." (I. Samuel, 
xviii: 1. ) Read also that of Ruth and Naomi: 44 Entreat me 
not to leave thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and 
where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my 
people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I 
die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and 
more also, if aught but death part thee and me." (Ruth, 
i: 10, 17.) 



XV.— KINDNESS. 

Man's mentality adapts him to all the surroundings of 
Earth, to all the institutes of Nature. " The poor ye have 




Fig. 13.-HENRY WARD BEECHER.-K1NDNESS LARGE. 

with you alway;" the rich need sympathy, the weak need 
help, the erring need kindly counsel, the broken-hearted 
need comfort. The Heavenly Father has adapted each 
one of His creatures to these objects of charity, mercy 

4 (97) 



98 SHORT TALKS. 

and kindness, by giving him a mental faculty which gives 
him sympathy for suffering. Else, how could we be sym- 
pathetic, tender-hearted and merciful? And why would 
one be so much more tender and good than another? 
Difference in education and training will not account for 
the great difference there is in men in respect to charity. 
Great, warm, kind and merciful " hearts " are often 
found in those who have none of what we call training, 
education or refinement. " Diamonds in the rough/ ' 
you may call them. Well, they are diamonds, all the 
same, and are made of the pure stuff. They are God's 
image on Earth, these men and women who " go about 
doing good." They have an innate feeling which prompts 
them to charity. God has given us kindness, and He will 
hold us responsible for the exercise of this faculty of mind. 
All have it. Some much more than others. All could 
manifest it more to much profit. 

What a blessing are the kind! Men go out and meet 
one another on the field of battle, shoot and cut one an- 
other to pieces; but behind the cold steel and the hard 
bullets come the kind-hearted to bind up the wounds, to 
cool the parching lips, to speak words of tenderest mercy, 
to care for the fallen. Who can estimate the worth of 
one kind soul? 

How precious is the kindness of our literature! How it 
makes our heart beat warm to even read of kindness! 
" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' ' 
" The barbarians showed us no little kindness." " Be ye 
kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
another. " " Above all things, have fervent charity among 
yourselves; for charity covereth a multitude of sins." 
<4 Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; 
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not be- 
have itself uncomely." " And now abideth Faith, Hope 
and Charity, these three; but the greatest of these is 
Charity." Hear the great poet: 



KINDNESS. 99 

' The quality of mercy is not strained; 
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, 
Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes; 
Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown; 
His scepler shows the force of temporal power, 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 
But mercy is above this sceptered sway; 
It is enthroned in the heart of kings, 
It is an attribute of God himself." 

This student of Nature knew more of humanity than 
some of the great speculative metaphysicians. They make 
goodness accidental, external to man, politic; he found it 
in man's heart. "Kindness — a language which the 
dumb can speak and the deaf can understand." Kind- 
ness — " the milk of human kindness." 

" There's no dearth of kindness 
In this world of ours; 
Only in our blindness 
We gather thorns with flowers." 

Kindness, like all the feelings, must be exercised with 
judgment and good sense. The indolent and thriftless 
need our help, but it is not always best to give them 
money, or food and clothing ready for use. This often 
encourages and continues laziness and idleness. Those 
who can work for a living ought to be made to work. 
The laws against vagrancy, therefore, are kind. But 
there must be arrangements whereby the penalty, which 
should always be work, should be enforced with kindness. 
" Man's inhumanity to man " should never be allowed for 
a moment among the prisoners of government. Yet there 
should be strict laws against vagrancy, and the penalty 
should be sure to follow " in all kindness." Indiscriminate 
giving to tramps, able-bodied men, is not kindness, is not 
the best thing to do for them. 



100 SHORT TALKS. 

The cultivation of this faculty becomes important, since 
so much depends on it. All mental faculties can be culti- 
vated. Oh, that our parents and teachers knew just what 
these mental faculties are, and how to cultivate them! 
Exercise gives strength, power and a disposition to action. 
Action begets action. Action makes action easy. Then, 
to cultivate kindness, read of acts of mercy and kindness, 
think of deeds of benevolence, do acts of love. It is a 
great pity that our school text-books do not have more of 
the tender and kind and charitable. Merciful literature 
is a blessing to a nation. What a valuable contribution to 
our literature it would be if we had the deeds of kindness 
which men have shown to men recorded as history, instead 
of a record of cruelty, war and bloodshed. 

Many people think too much of the bad and the unkind 
acts of men. We are too ready to think unkindly. Let 
us dwell on the good others have done. Let us speak of 
the good qualities of our neighbors, not the bad. The 
man who, hearing of the death of the most trifling man in 
the neighborhood, after a moment's thought said: " Well, 
he was the best whistler I ever heard, " was a man with a 
kind heart. He was full of " charity toward all." The 
exercise of kindness has the most wonderful effect on both 
him who acts and him who receives. Kindness comes 
from the heart and goes to the heart. Lose no oppor- 
tunity to do kindly. Let the unkind and harsh things go 
unsaid. 

Do not witness acts of cruelty even to animals, much less 
perpetrate them. The tender-hearted man is merciful to 
his beast, to all animate life. Take the life of no animal, 
except of necessity, then without pain. Teach children to 
shun the slaughter-house, and not to look on acts of cruelty 
but to pity. 

It is unkind to kill for sport. Some boys delight in 
robbing a nest of its young birds and in killing the old 
ones for their amusement. Some men kill innocent and 



KINDNESS. 101 

useful auimals by the score, and call it fun. Such men 
have not a very tender heart, and these killings make it 
less tender. Women would not do it. Few girls would 
rob a bird's nest or take innocent life, unless led on by 
less kind brothers. Women have the organ of kindness 
larger in their brains, and more of the " milk of human 
kindness " in their hearts. Boys should be like their 
mothers in kindness. Kindness is not a weakness, and 
cruelty is not courage. 



XVI.— SPIRITUALITY. 

In" recounting the great blessings which Phrenology has 
brought to an inquiring world, it is hard to tell which is 




Fig. 14.-ROBERT KOCH, M. L>.- SPIRITUALITY LARGE. 

worth most. The value of the proof of God's existence 
scientifically is not to be estimated. But if there is one 
fact which Phrenology has demonstrated, above another in 

(102) 



SPIRITUALITY. 103 

priceless value to humanity, it is the discovery in man's 
brain of the organ, or center, called Spirituality. All peo- 
ples have believed in spirituality after some fashion, but so 
diverse and different have been the expressions and mani- 
festations that they have hardly been recognized as coming 
from the same source. But the reader must bear in mind 
that this is only a seutiment, a feeling, and that it de- 
pends on intellect for its intelligent and correct manifesta- 
tion to the external world. So these spiritual manifesta- 
tions have been colored by the intelligence and knowledge 
of the people. But the general belief in spirits is felt, and 
remains with all nations. Our God is a Spirit, angels are 
spirits, demons are spiritual, and the Indian's God is th e 
Great Spirit. This feeling is given by this primary men- 
tal faculty, Spirituality. It is given to us to adapt us to 
the spiritual. The intellect can not put us in relation with 
spirits, can not open up and receive the Spirit, God, into 
it. There must be something outside of intellect. Mere 
intellectual life, intellectual religion, intellectual faith, 
does not take hold of God and the spiritual. " With the 
Heart man believeth unto righteousness." " The heart 
of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all 
things." This is what metaphysicians call the emotions; 
but Phrenology has proved that all these, with the intel- 
lect, have their seat (organ or center) in the brain. But 
the point I wish to make clear is that man does not believe 
in God, does not live the spiritual life, with intellect. If 
he did, the most intellectual man would be the most re- 
ligious and spiritual and God-like. Not so. Often the 
reverse. Intellect can not communicate with spirit. It 
can learn of it and direct the feeling intelligently, wisely. 
Neither can the intellect desire the spiritual, or having 
argued itself into the state in which it says it may be the 
best thing for an intelligent man to be religious, just cease 
to be carnal and be spiritual. This is really theologica] 
ground, but it is so nicely seen from the scientific study of 



104 SHORT TALKS. 

mind that I may be pardoned for referring to it. To 
return to the point: Without Spirituality there could 
never have been a communication from God to man, a 
revelation from above. Spirituality, then, is the gate- way 
from Heaven to Earth, the avenue to man's life. God 
approaches from above. The spirit always comes doiun. 
This organ of Spirituality is located in the top head, on 
either side of Worship. Is not this significant? Worship 
adores God through Spirituality. 

Premonitions, warnings, seeing the future, prophecy, all 
come through this faculty. No other hypothesis will ac- 
count for them. Just a few days ago a gentleman told 
me, with tears in his eyes, how his mother used to know 
when he was coming home, and have his sisters prepare 
such dishes as he liked; and this when he had not told 
any one of his intentions. How many mothers have had 
the same feeling? There must have been a communica- 
tion from one to the other. Without this faculty of spir- 
ituality, these things could not be. How many persons 
have been ivarned not to do a certain thing, and the fut- 
ure proved the warning true? Nearly all have had this 
experience. You who have not should not doubt those 
who have. Women have most of these premonitions. 
They feel most. They rejoice in religious revivals most. 
All of which goes to prove they are lest. Woman's in- 
tuition comes largely through this faculty. How often 
have sons and husbands been directed by the intuition of a 
mother or a wife? There is an old saying that a husband 
who follows the advice of his wife always succeeds, and 
another, that the boy who is like his mother is always 
"lucky." 

Anv and all conceptions of God and spirits come through 
Spirituality. A trust and belief in immortality, in the 
higher life, comes through it. A beneficent Father gave 
it to us for this very purpose. And to encourage us, to 
make us advance, to give us the longing and earnest look- 



SPIRITUALITY. 105 

ing forward for things higher, to help us up the shining 
way, He makes it a pleasure to exercise it. " To be 
spiritually minded is life." That expresses it. The per- 
son who cultivates the spiritual side lives in the true and 
higher sense of that word. He gets much pleasure out of 
the life which now is, and glimpses and radiating sparks 
of the life beyond. The cultivation, then, the correct ex- 
ercise, of this faculty is of the highest importance. It is 
elevating, purifying, and gives man a degree of pleasure 
not felt through any other faculty. Witness the pure, 
ecstatic delight of all new converts, especially if their lives 
have been low and bad, their hearts grown hard, and their 
minds strangers to this spiritual, heavenly feeling. Can 
anything equal that happiness? See the bright and shin- 
ing face! 

He looks on heav'n with more than mortal eyes, 
Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies, 
Amid her kindred stars familiar roam, 
Survey the region, and confess her home. 

—Pope. 

Can they ever be so happy again? Yes, many times. 
By living in the spiritual every day one may bring the 
recurrence of this exquisite delight. God gives us the 
most pleasure in this spiritual living that we may seek 
after it, live more in that region, and thus prepare our- 
selves for the pure spirit-life beyond the grave. Why, 
then, are we ashamed of the spiritual life? If one gets 
unspeakably happy, and can only shout the joy he feels, 
why should he not do so, and rejoice and delight in it? 
Why not have more of the real spiritual in all our wor- 
ship? Men have so changed the " divine plan " of God's 
people that much of the worship is cold, formal, by rote, 
" having the form of Godliness, but denying the power 
thereof." Oh, for a return to primitive worship! " The 
groves were God's first temples." Let Him have them 
there yet. How much nearer we can come to God out 



106 SHORT TALKS. 

under His own canopy — looking upon the work of His 
hands, not that of man. Early morning, late at evening, 
let busy man enter into counsel and communion with God. 
How the twinkling, shimmering stars raise our minds to 
Him who is invisible and infinite, yet felt within us! How 
the placid moon and the strong and mighty rising sun 
carry us outward and upward. Let preachers and public 
speakers cultivate the spiritual, using the works of God as 
means. What a blessing was that "Twilight Band" at 
Cooper Institute! Should any of that band, teachers or 
pupils, read these lines, let them never forget the Twilight 
hour. We may then, through our Spirituality, commune 
with one another and with our Father. Any hour is good, 
but there is a quiet and a spiritual stillness about the even- 
ing, the sunset and the twilight, which is nowhere else. 
How we love to sit in the glow of the evening and forget 
worldly care! 

Through this mental faculty many have been imposed 
on by modern spiritism. Humbugs have taken advantage 
of man's faith and credulity, and taught and tried to prove 
many things that are not so, mainly for gain. Spirits do 
not write letters. They do not appear at the call of cer- 
tain persons in dark rooms. They are not so material as 
to be photographed. Spiritism and Christian Science take 
advantage of man's highest and best nature, and thus de- 
ceive the very best men, men of no ordinary intellect. 
Remember that spirit communes with spirit through Spir- 
ituality, not through material, earthy, sensual, devilish 
means. Bearing this in mind may save us from going, as 
many have, after this spiritism which is not spiritual. 

This morning's New York Sun, after mentioning noted 
spiritists, and showing them to have more than ordinary 
intellects, says: 

" Blavatsky dies after having been exposed as an im- 
postor, but Mrs. Besant, a woman of superior mental 
quality, looks up to her as a seeress and the apostle of a 



SPIRITUALITY. 107 

new and a higher faith. Theosophy goes on flourishing. 
Faith cure and Christian Science, as it is called, take firm 
hold on the belief of many men and women of more than 
usual intelligence. 

" This is assuredly an age of credulity no less than of 
skepticism and of scientific investigation. The theological 
controversies show also that it is a period of profound 
faith, if also it is a time when agnosticism is uprooting the 
faith of many and taking from them the consolation of 
belief in supernatural religion. Even the skepticism is no 
longer scoffing. It is serious, earnest, and charitable to 
belief. What is to be the outcome in the next century? 
Will it be a general revival of faith or a general destruc- 
tion of faith?" 

It can never be a "general destruction of faith," that 
is, a complete destruction, for faith is in the mental make- 
up of man. God grant that it may be a general revival of 
spiritual religion. If there are fewer converts to Christi- 
anity, may they be more spiritual. Yet, " when the Son 
of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the Earth?" 



XVIL— IMMORTALITY— ITS SCIENTIFIC PROOFS. 

" If a man die, shall he live again?' 5 Is there an exist- 
ence heyond the grave? Is life the result of organic forces, 
and when they cease does it cease, or is it pre-existent to 
organism, and can it live on without these material bodies? 
Does death end all? 

These questions every thinking being wants answered, 
and sometimes he wants some proof outside of the Bible. 
Some want to know what science says. This is an age of 
science, and some men have tried to make science disprove 
everything which a Christian man holds dear, and prove 
many things which he does not hold dear. Now, how 
about it? Is Science with the Bible and Christian experi- 
ence, or against it? Science is truth. Not all that passes 
for science, however. Being truth, it can not conflict 
with the truth of the Bible. All truth must agree. 

Here is the proof of immortality from Phrenology. The 
writer had this subject for his graduating thesis, and is 
confident that the argument is substantial and irrefraga- 
ble. Spirituality is immortality. Phrenology proves man 
to possess the faculty of Spirituality. This is to put him 
in relation with the spiritual, with spirits. 

Therefore spirits exist. 

Spirit can only commune with spirit. Man receives 
communion from spirits, therefore man is spiritual — a 
spirit immortal. This argument is the same by which 
Phrenology proves the existence of God, so I will not go 
into its detail. It is conclusive, but may be re-enforced by 
the following truths: 

1. A universal belief in, and a desire for, immortality. 

Without any revelation, with no learning, no education, 
no civilization, our American Indian was a firm believer in 

(108) 



IMMORTALITY — ITS SCIENTIFIC PROOFS. 109 

the happy hunting-ground beyond. So confident was he 
that the departed brave would go there, that he buried 
with him the things he would be supposed to need on the 
other side. 

Whence this belief? It must arise from the fact of im- 
mortality, and the faculty of Spirituality. As with the 
Indian, so with all peoples who have no revealed knowl- 
edge of God and immortality. They feel that there is a 
life beyond. 

Plato, thou reasonest well, else why this pleasing hope, this fond 
desire, this longing after immortality? — Addison. 

There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain pres- 
age, as it were, of a future existence; and this takes the deepest 
r oot, and is most discoverable in the greatest geniuses and most ex- 
alted souls. — Cicero. 

I held it ever, 
Virtue and cunning were endowments greater 
Than nobleness and riches; careless heirs 
May the two latter darken and expand, 
But immortality attends the former, 
Making a man good. 

— Pericles. 

2. Age improves, spiritualizes, purifies the lives of all 
ivlio live aright. 

This can not be doubted. Who are the best men, the 
purest and most saintly women? The elders always. We 
do not look for much goodness in youth, but with age, 
with gray hairs, come wisdom, goodness, purity, softness, 
mellowness. Life is a constant advance. Let us not say 
" going down the hill of life," but let us think of it as a 
going on and on, higher and higher, upward and still up- 
ward, to the very grave, and still onward, right onward 
beyond. This is what our Father intended. To this is 
our physical body adapted, if we only keep it aright. Age 
then becomes beautiful, a thing to be desired. Macdonald 
has said: " Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the 



110 SHORT TALKS. 

swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts 
the husk." 

1 know the general idea of age is different; many think 
of it as dark and dreary, not to be desired, but to be 
dreaded. Some even prefer death to old age. Why is 
this? There must be something wrong with such a life. 
If one live in the selfish propensities, age will not be sweet; 
if he live the animal life, he may well dread old age; but 
if he live the higher life, the moral and spiritual life, he 
may rejoice and still bring forth fruit in old age. 

Place beside the quotation above from Macdonald the 
following from Byron, on his thirty-sixth birthday: 

" My days are in the yellow leaf: 

The flowers and fruits of love are gone; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 
Are mine alone!" 

So, we see, it depends on the life as to how age is ap- 
proached. I know most writers present it sad and gloomy, 
but science is against them, and science is truth. Read 
the sweet effusions of John, the strong yearnings of Paul, 
the sentiments of Bunyan, the feelings of Milton; read the 
words of any who have lived aright, and find they confirm 
the truth as taught by Human Science. Age does improve, 
benefit, purify, spiritualize every faculty of the human 
mind. 

3. Immortality is desirable. 

All long for life, for something more than present life. 
The dread of death has maybe been given us that we 
should be constrained to seek everlasting life. Coupled 
with this is " Love for Life." It is inherent in man's nat- 
ure, a primal mental faculty. Age does not destroy this 
love for life, but purifies it and elevates it into love for the 
life beyond. Life, then, everlasting life, is desirable. 

4. God is able to give it. 

No one can doubt this. He is all-powerful. He can 



immortality — its scientific proofs. Ill 

give it and none can take it away, for He is greater than 
all. 

5. God is willing we should live forever. 

Why not? Our lives glorify Him. He gives us life to 
keep, He helps us to keep it. He rejoices at life, and 
says it is " very good." He is antagonistic to death. Out 
from Him comes all life. He is the fountain of life. He 
has given man a higher life. He has committed this life 
to man. He is willing we should keep it. Nothing 
grieves Him so much as for us to forfeit it. 

6. Life inheres in mentality. 

1 want to make this truth clear. Human life does not 
come from organism, but organism from it. Life is not an 
effect of material organs, but organs are merely the means 
of manifesting it. Motion can not give life, but is only a 
sign that there is life in the moving thing. Life is not, 
then, a mere mode of motion. Science, falsely so called, 
has taught this. From the common school to the uni- 
versity, pupils receive instruction which is materialistic. 
They all teach that sound, heat, electricity, etc., are mere- 
ly " modes of motion." One step further, and we may 
say human life is but a mode of motion, and when the mo- 
tion ceases there is no more of Life. Phrenology teaches 
differently. It says the Brain is the organ of the mind, 
not the cause of mind, but the instrument. Mind, then, 
is anterior to brain, lived before it, and can live without it. 

7. Death itself proves immortality. 

It is as natural as birth, and is as much of an advance 
in life. It comes with pleasure to all good lives. "Who 
ever saw a good person die that did not know it was not 
death, eternal death? It may be accompanied with pain 
and anguish, if it come prematurely, but the last moments 
of the death of the righteous are moments of sweetest 
pleasure. Songs and rejoicing often accompany it, and 
some even see their future life brighten. The expression 
of the countenance, that mirror of the mind, is enough to 



112 SHORT TALKS. 

show us that the last touch to that face was joy, not sor- 
row; hope, not despair; Life, not death. The good man 
has been longing for a purer, better, holier, higher life, 
and at the close of this life, at the laying down of this 
" dead body," he sees and feels the life on the other shore, 
feels it so unmistakably that he rejoices in it, tells us of its 
joys, and it leaves on his face its beautiful and unmistaka- 
ble footprints. Man is immortal. Praise God for the 
gift! Think of the endless joy of life! Let the scientist (?) 
console himself with the belief that man is but a well-de- 
veloped monkey, a material organism which must decay; 
but facts are against him. Life is a substantial everlast- 
ing entity which has for its home here this fleshly body of 
ours. " But we know if this earthly house of our taber- 
nacle be dissolved, we have a building, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." 



XV1IL— CHRISTIAN CHARACTER— ITS 
FOUNDATION. 

The highest, purest, best, most lasting of all characters, 
is the Christian character. The one that is to survive 
amid the " wreck of worlds and the crash of matter," is 
the Christian character. The one which has the promise 
of a building " eternal in the heavens," is the Christian 
character. The building of Christian character, then, is 
the noblest, highest, most important work in which we 
can engage; the summum bonum of our earthly existence; 
the one work to which all other things should tend, the 
one result we should hope for, and for the gaining of 
which we should set in operation all our activities and 
bend all our energies. How blessed are we of God, that 
we may thus build for ourselves, that we are the architects 
of our own eternal fortunes! Behold what manner of 
love the Creator hath bestowed on us fallen creatures to 
thus intrust us with this so great a work! " Work out 
your own salvation," He says, and promises to help. 

Since this character is to be so lasting, what of its foun- 
dation? The important part, the essential part, of every 
building is its foundation. No one can afford to spend 
time, talent and energy building on the sand, or on he 
knows not what. There must be a sure foundation. This 
the Christian character has, for it is founded on a rock. 
Now, sometimes we do not get the correct idea of rock. 
Boys speak of throwing rocks, we speak of piling up rocks, 
etc., so using the word as to lead us to think that these 
pebbles, these light, loose bodies, are rocks. Not so. A 
rock is a fixture, an immovable deposit. Webster says: 
'* Rock — a large fixed stone." Scott says: 

(113) 



114 SHORT TALKS. 

" Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I." 

You remember the man who built his house on a rock, 
and the winds and storms and rains beat on that house in 
vain; it fell not; it was founded on a Bock. So with our 
Christian character. It shall never fall, it can not fall; it 
is founded, built on a Rock, and that Bock is Christ the 
Lord. " No other foundation hath any man laid than 
that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ the Right- 
eous.'' Let us thank God and build diligently on such a 
foundation, knowing that our house can never, never fall. 
The winds of adversity may blow— must blow; the clouds 
of sorrow may gather, the muttering thunders of grief 
and vexation of spirit may roll, the earthquakes of unrest 
and discontent may growl underneath our feet, the floods 
of sin and wickedness, of which this world is full, may 
burst over our heads, yet all, all can not overthrow our 
building; it has for its foundation Christ the Bock. How 
beautiful that promise to Peter: " Thou art Peter (Petros, 
a stone), and upon this Eock (Petra) I will build my 
church." Not upon Peter, as some say, nor upon Peter's 
faith, as others say, and which would be quite as weak a 
foundation; but upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, is this 
church built. So it can not fall. If it can not fall as a 
whole, it can not fall in part, for the whole is no stronger 
than its parts. If one part could fall, all parts could fall, 
and therefore the whole might fall. Yet the blessed 
promise is, that even the very gates of Hades shall not over- 
come it, death itself shall not destroy it. Such is Christian 
life, Christian character. Then let us build with the 
blessed assurance that we shall inhabit everlastingly. This 
idea of God's being a Bock is so beautiful and runs all 
through the Bible. When Moses smote the Rock, the 
Lord stood upon that rock, and that Rock was Christ. 

" He is the Rock. His work is perfect." 



CHRISTIAN CHARACTER — ITS FOUNDATION. 115 

" Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and 
hast forgotten the God that formed thee. " 

'* For their rock is not as our Rock, our enemies them- 
selves being judges." 

" The Lord is my Rock and my fortress." 

14 Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." 

*' He only is my Rock and my salvation." 

" Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my 
salvation." 

" My God is the Rock of my refuge." 

With this sure foundation , shall we not build? But 
there are impediments, hinderances and enemies. 1 can 
not speak of all, but let me speak briefly of the enemies, 
the world, the flesh and Satan. 

The world is our enemy; not the world as God created 
it, the beautiful Earth, which is very good and which 
shall " endure forever," and be the final heritage of the 
meek; but the world of man, the works of this world, in 
which men are mostly engaged and which they call great. 
These come along in the Christian's way and sometimes 
hide his light. Honor, position, place powers, and prin- 
cipalities — most of these are in the hands of our arch- 
enemy, Satan, and by their use he leads men astray. 

There are as many, or more, worldly wise men in our 
day than in Bunyan's, and had 1 a picture to stand at the 
head of this chapter it would be a Christian with bent 
back and trembling knees, carrying the world on one 
shoulder and Satan drawn close to his other side. Of how 
many would this be a good representation? We find it 
hard to give up the world. " Come out from among 
them, and be ye separate," is a hard command to obey. 
The world has so much to offer, the church so little. We 
are told that we are too great for the church. We should 
give our great talent and ability to the world. It will ap- 
preciate us and reward us and even applaud us. Political 
preferment is open to us. We may hope for much in this 



11(5 SHORT TALKS. 

line. Great places of honor and trust, great salaries, and 
great and honorable titles, all these are inviting enemies 
to the Christian builder. 

So attractive and so much sought after are these titles, 
honors and large salaries, that the church, thinking it 
knows more about what will draw men than did our Sav- 
iour, has invented all these within its own gift, in order to 
try to attract and hold the proud, the ambitious, the power 
and honor-seekers. Yes, it now confers titles, high-sound- 
ing, honor-conveying titles, which men seek with diligence. 
Pope, priest, prelate, bishop (as now used by world and 
church), elder, D. D., and many other titles has the 
church (?) presumed to give unto men to hold them, and 
the honors and emoluments of the same. Preachers are 
now designated by the thousand dollars, as business houses 
are — a 11,000 preacher, a 82,000 preacher, and so on to a 
$20,000 preacher. Men have invented for themselves, in 
what they choose to call the Church of Christ, all these 
things, and made laws for its government, and written out 
books setting forth the same, and so perverted and muti- 
lated this body that I doubt not the Lord himself would 
not recognize it. In fact, I am very sure He will not 
recognize much that men call His Church. And all this 
has been done to satisfy the ambition and pride and love 
of poiver and show in human nature, and so hold the 
44 great " men in the church. So it has come to be a diffi- 
cult thing to distinguish the world and the church (?). 

2. The flesh — carnality. 

44 The carnal mind is enmity against God," so the car- 
nal is the enemy of the Christian and the higher life we 
should live. And we all have the flesh. Is not this the 
depravity of which theologians talk so much and say so 
little? Does it not inhere in our fleshly bodies, in our car- 
nal natures? And does not this carnality lead us to sin? 
Is it not our fleshly natures that we are to watch, and 
which are transmitted from parent to child? Love for 



CHRISTIAN CHARACTER — iTS FOUNDATION, ll? 

drink, for opiates, intemperate habits, strong desires, all 
these are carnal — fleshly. 

Is not this the " total hereditary depravity " of which 
the church says so much and the Bible so little? 

3. Satan. What shall we say of this old man ? 

One thing we can say: he is the great enemy of Christ- 
ian character. It is not given to him to destroy the life of 
the Christian builder. Oh, no! That he can not touch. 
Witness his power over Job. Everything could he take 
away but Job's life. So with the Christian. Satan may 
mar and spoil his work, may persuade him not to work, 
not to build for the Lord. In this he delights. He is 
the " Prince of the air," the " Prince of this world," and 
has much power, but not the power of life and death, 
everlasting, of the Christian. He is a Person, a right 
royal personality. So many desire to rob him of his 
power, his might, his personality even. But he stands in 
the Bible a person,. and it is as easy to unpersonalize God 
himself as Satan. And this old enemy of Christ and 
Christians and Christianity is not in Hades or the pit yet. 
This earth is yet his territory. He will be bound and cast 
into Hell, but not yet. So he is here among us, and our 
great enemy, and he will deceive the elect if possible. 

While the Christian has opposition and hinderance and 
this great enemy, he also has powerful friends who are 
willing and able to help — the Father, the Son and the 
Holy Spirit. These are his friends, his companions, his 
strength, his comfort, if he will have them. " Go, and 
lo! I am with you alway." 

" I will send the Comforter, and He shall abide with 
you forever." 

" I and the Father are one, and will take up our abode 
with you." 

How favored is the Christian that his body is the home 
of divinity! How should this move him to work, to walk 
worthily of his calling! How should he be moved to 



118 Short talks. 

build when it is " God that worketh within to will and 
to do!" 

THE SHADOW OF THE ROCK. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
Stay, Pilgrim, stay! 
Night treads upon the heels of Day; 
There is no other resting-place this way. 
The Rock is near, 
The well is clear — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
The desert wide 

Lies round thee like a trackless tide, 
In waves of sand forlornly multiplied. 
The sun is gone, 
Thou art alone — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
All come alone; 

All, ever since the sun hath shone, 
Who travel' d by this road, have come alone. 
Be of good cheer, 
A home is here — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
Night veils the land; 
How the palms whisper as they stand! 
How the well tinkles faintly through the sand! 
Cool water take 
Thy thirst to slake — 
Rest in 1he Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
Abide! abide! 

This Rock moves ever at thy side, 
Pausing to welcome thee at eventide. 
Ages are laid 
Beneath its shade — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 



CHRISTIAN CHARACTER — ITS FOUNDATION. 119 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
Always at hand, 

Unseen, it cools the noontide land, 
And quells the fire that flickers in the sand. 
It comes in sight 
Only at night — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 



The Shadow of the Rock! 
'Mid skies storm-riven 
It gathers shadows out of heaven 
And holds them o'er us all night, cool and even. 
Through the charm'd air 
Dew falls not, there — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
To angel's eyes 

This Rock its shadow multiplies, 
And at this hour in countless places lies. 
One Rock, one shade, 
O'er thousands laid — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 



The Shadow of the Rock! 
To weary feet, 

That have been diligent and fleet, 
The sleep is deeper and the shade more sweet. 
O weary, rest! 
Thou art sore pressed — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 



The Shadow of the Rock! 
Thy bed is made; 

Crowds of tired souls like thine are laid 
This night beneath the self-same placid shade. 
They who rest here 
Wake with heaven near — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 



120 SHORT TALKS. 



The Shadow of the Rock! 
Pilgrim, sleep sound; 
In night's swift hours, "with silent bound, 
The Rock will put thee over leagues of ground, 
Gaining more way 
By night than day — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

The Shadow of the Rock! 
One day of pain; 

Thou scarce wilt hope the Rock to gain, 
Yet there wilt sleep thy last sleep on the plain, 
And only wake 
In heaven's daybreak — 
Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. 

— Faber. 



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XIX.— TRYING TO RIDE TWO HORSES. 

Our illustration represents a very common occurrence. 
Men often try to ride two horses at the same time, and 
always with the result as you see it. In " The Start " 
you can see this man is not going to do any good. One 
horse is already so far ahead of the other that it is with 
effort that the poor fellow keeps his seat. See how des- 
perately he is clinching the horse on this side with his 
right leg. You may imagine that the other leg is doing 
full service, trying to hold on to the other horse, trying to 
pull him along and keep him up with the foremost. But 
all to no avail. See in the " Result " how the thing 
turned out. The unfortunate man is thrown from his 
seat, is being pawed by one horse, while the other goes 
scampering away. 

The effort to ride two horses is not confined to any class 
or profession, A desire for popularity is the cause. In 
social life we often see it. A young man is going to see 
two pretty girls at the same time, telling each every time 
he goes that she is his choice of all the pretty girls in the 
world. Doing his best to make each believe he is in love 
with her alone. Try to ride two horses, young man, and 
you will come to the result as shown in the cut. Let me 
tell you, young ladies, no young man was ever in love with 
two women at the same time, and his extra efforts to make 
any two think so only prove he is in love with neither. 1 
would say to every young man: Shun the young lady who 
always wants two strings to her " beau;" and to the young 
lady: Make haste slowly with the young man who is court- 
ing two girls at the same time. But trying to ride two 
horses is not confined to courting. Mrs. Idlewild goes 
over to see Mrs. Fuilpocket, and tells her and all the fam- 
ily that there is not another family in her neighborhood of 

(121) 



122 SHORT TALKS. 

whom she thinks half so much; praises Mr. Full pocket as 
a husband, and only wishes her husband was half so good. 
Having made fair weather, as she thinks, with the Full- 
pockets against any day of need, she calls on Mrs. Love 
All, and proceeds at once to make a fair-weather speech to 
her and family. She has always loved her, and often 
speaks of her piety to her husband and children, and hopes 
they will imitate the lives of the Love Alls. Money is 
worth very little in this world, anyway, she says, and she 
is glad she does not possess or desire much. Trying to 
ride two horses, and will come to a bad end. Mr. Simple- 
ton wants an office, and at the earnest solicitation of his 
friends offers himself as a sacrifice. Then the courting 
must begin. He must try to ride two horses — yes, many 
horses. He must be everything to every one. He must 
talk better to every man than to any other man. Full of 
good promises to all, but to the man he is with in particu- 
lar. This will bring him to a bad end sooner or later. 
Young man, if you do not want to be tempted to try to 
ride two horses, do not become a candidate for any office. 
A candidate must almost necessarily sacrifice all independ- 
ence. He can not be what he wants to be; he must be 
what he thinks will make him popular, and give him 
votes. Another point about being a candidate: If you 
are successful, you will hardly be worth anything as a man 
any more. You will, nine times in ten, become a chronic 
office-seeker, and death will find you trying to ride two 
horses into office. 

The most common effort at riding two horses will pos- 
sibly be found in the political parties. Some men are 
politically what they are from principle —most are what 
they are from policy. Many are the hard falls men of 
political aspiration get trying to ride two horses. " Inde- 
pendentism/ 5 so called, comes from this effort. They are 
nothing or anything in politics, to suit the times and the 
people — place-hunters, time-servers. They make all kinds 



TRYING TO RIDE TWO HORSES. 123 

of promises to all kinds of parties, then find themselves in 
such a position when they reach the halls of legislation 
that they can not do anything for anybody. Committed to 
many, hands tied to all, they can do nothing for one side lest 
the other fall out with them. Uneasy must rest the head 
that has in it a recollection of promises made to many and 
diverse persons and opinions. " lndependentism " most 
frequently is only an effort to ride two horses, and the 
" independent" is often thrown before he goes far. All 
admire independence in men, but after one has become a 
candidate it is rather too late to tell it for the first time. 
The man who is so independent in politics that he does not 
care a straw who is in office, so its duties are well per- 
formed, is the real independent fellow, the one who gets 
some comfort out of his independence. Young man, if 
you are going to be anything in politics, be what you are; 
stay on one horse, as a matter of principle, if you never 
ride into prominence. If it becomes absolutely necessary 
for you to serve your country, and save the Ship of State 
from stranding, she will let you know in tiune. Don't 
sacrifice everything for place and position in party. Man- 
hood is precious just now; it is being put up in small 
packages, and it will pay to keep it. One who tries to 
ride two horses in politics can not be trusted with much 
character at a time. He is liable to lose, even a very little. 
Another field full of two-horse riders is the religious 
vineyard. Every day you meet the well-wisher-to-all-re- 
ligions fellow. If he should be thrown with a Catholic, he 
extols Catholicism. Nothing is so good as this special 
form of religion. He is friendly to all, but especially ad- 
mires Catholicism. Should he drop in with a Protestant, 
he can praise Protestantism. Its great men are his de- 
light. He descants freely of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and 
all the leading Protestants who have made themselves 
famous in this faith. He would be no less pleasing to a 
Baptist, or a Mormon, or a Quaker. He can ricle all the 



124: SHORT TALKS. 

horses in the religious world. Should he stay out of all 
these organizations, he will hardly hurt any one, no one will 
know if he is thrown from his horse. But the rider who 
is so often thrown is the one who is a member of one de- 
nomination and trying to please all. He is your " lib- 
eral " religionist. He is your " one-church-is-as-good-as- 
another " fellow. He loves religion dearly, but has no 
use for sectarianism. Mr. Please-All in religion. Worth 
nothing to himself religiously, nothing to his church, 
nothing to any one. Such men are to be pitied, not hav- 
ing sufficient conviction to get a good case of religion. 

One more two-horse rider we must notice is the preacher 
who wants to be " popular." He is possibly the most to 
be pitied of any mentioned. Poor fellow! he has a big job 
before him. Not only must he please all of his own faith 
and practice, but he must be soft on all other shades of 
belief. He must cut and trim to suit the times and the 
occasions. No man can be popular as a preacher without 
it. He must please God and the devil both if he would 
please all men and satisfy his own conscience and obliga- 
tion. This must be a hard task. And the result — well, 
behold the picture: one horse gone glimmering, and the 
other mad and fighting. 



XX.— THINKING. 

Those that think must govern those that toil. — Goldsmith. 

This must necessarily be true, and since the thinker 
must govern the toiler, how important it is to have them 
two in one. This is what we need, that the worker be- 
come a thinker, and the thinker become a worker; then 
can we have the thinker governing the toiler in his own 
person; then shall we have perfect self-government. 

This is pre-eminently an age of action. We glory in 
the activity of our times. Yet I fear there is danger in 
our very activity, because we do not think. Much action, 
too constant action, action every moment of life, drives 
out thought, leaves no time to think. I fear that with us 
now there is not enough of " sober, second thought." 

Thought must be the great antecedent of whatever is of 
worth. Action without thought results badly, injurious- 
ly. How much of misery, how much of heartache, how 
much of bloodshed, might have been averted had men 
only stopped to think. Too many have been like the wife 
Orabbe describes in the following: 

" The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak; 
She could not think, but would not cease to speak." 

Thought is antecedent to all success. Men and women 
desire success, labor for success, spend their energies for 
success; yet the thinker, the planner, is the successful 
person. No matter what the calling be, thinking brings 
success if followed out by action. The farmer who thinks 
makes " both edges cut;" the lawyer who thinks has 
clients; the teacher who thinks has somewhat to present 
to his class; the minister who thinks never lacks for an 
audience. The thinker, in whatever walk of life, is the 
genius. Disraeli says, " To think and to feel constitute 

(125) 



126 SHORT TALKS. 

the two grand divisions of the men of genius — the men of 
reason and the men of imagination." 

Men differ in many things, but the great difference be- 
tween them is that some think and others do not. Mind 
is made to use. It is superior to muscle; it can accom- 
plish wonders in planning that muscle can never do in exe- 
cuting without this planning. The master mechanic uses 
mind, the under worker depends on muscle, and so 
long as he thus depends will he be an under worker. The 
pen of Emerson never recorded a truer thought than this: 
" Thought takes men out of servitude into freedom." 
Men rise by thought, not by muscular energy. 

Thought produces aptitude, exactness, accuracy. How 
often we hear as an excuse for a mistake or a failure, " I 
did not think." We have workers and workers, but how 
few of them are accurate. There is not enough of plan- 
ning, not enough of preparation, not enough of sober, con- 
tinued, deep thought. Nor will little, shallow, fleeting 
thought do. Locke has well said: " To think often, and 
never retain it so much as one moment, is a very useless 
sort of thinking; and the soul in such a state of thinking 
does very little, if at all excel that of a looking-glass, 
which constantly receives variety of images, or ideas, but 
retains none. M We must have the " thoughts that 
breathe;" that is, living thoughts. 

To think, to learn to think, should be the aim of each 
one; but this requires time. We can not run on at a 
break-neck speed, and do such thinking as will tell in time 
and eternity. The very best advice which can be given 
our youth now is, "Stop and think." Let the mad, 
rushing, whirling, dizzy world go by for a moment with- 
out you; stand aside, collect yourself seriously, and give 
yourself to earnest thought. 

But what further advantage is thought? Much every 
way. 
It culls our words. Great thinkers are not apt to be 



THINKING. 12? 

great talkers, in the sense of using many words. Many 
things they deem best not said. What is said by such is 
well said. It begets other thought. Byron has said : 

" But words are things, and a small drop of ink, 
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces 
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." 

And some one has said that thought is valuable only as it 
is generative. You can not do better thau reread here 
and remember always the Preface, " Sow a thought, reap 
an idea; sow an idea, reap a word; sow a word, reap an 
act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a 
destiny." 

Thought is pleasant. How agreeable to himself is he who 
can have, who has constantly, pleasant thoughts. Bovee 
has said, " The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant 
thoughts, and the great art in life is to have as many of 
them as possible. " 

It puts us in good company. How miserable are the 
lonesome. How well off are those who are ever in good 
company. What wealth has he who can call on his 
thoughts for company, and always find them at home. 
" Alone with my thoughts " is not lonesomeness to the 
good thinker. 

It gives us wisdom. Wisdom is the chief thing, and it 
comes only through thought. Reading may give us facts, 
travel may sharpen our wits, but thought alone can make 
us wise. Let us thank God daily for ability to think and 
plan, for Causality and Comparison, among our mental 
faculties, and determine that we will preserve the likeness 
of the Deity in at least the one respect of being a thinker. 



XXL-EEADIKO. 

Common things are most apt to be neglected. Reading 
has come to be one of these " common " things, espe- 
cially in the schools. The result is, good readers are 
scarce. This ought not so to be, and I wish to impress 
every reader with the truth, that to strive to become a good 
reader is worthy the efforts of any one. Our schools do 
err in this thing. Heading is grievously mistaught. May 
I speak of some of the ways in which this is done? 

First, nearly all pupils are taught to read too young. 
Precious moments are wasted trying to learn to read, 
when many other things are neglected which might be 
learned easily, and with great interest, on the part of 
young pupils. Children five or six years old take little in- 
terest in reading. They would take much interest in 
many other things, and such things as they must learn. 

Spelling out reading, as is done in many schools at be- 
ginning, is a fruitful source of much of the drawling and 
monotone in reading which we have. Pupils should be 
taught to read before they spell, and to read from the 
words at a glance, and not be allowed to read at first by 
spelling out the words. Let reading be done by the be- 
ginner as it is by the more advanced reader — by the " word 
method." 

Much harm to the reader comes from allowing him to 
read over many words which he does not comprehend, and 
by having him do reading at school which he is not able to 
understand. Such reading is not only of no service to the 
learner, but it gives him a distaste for reading. 

A kindred evil is reading, or trying to read, too much. 
Mrs. Browning's advice to a friend should be considered 
by every one teaching others or himself to read. She said, 

(128) 



READING. 129 

44 We generally err by reading too much, and out of pro- 
portion to what we think." Most reading lessons at school 
are too long. Too many of them are required. There is 
nothing in which a little well done is worth more than in 
learning to read. 

Learners fail to learn to love reading. This is a griev- 
ous failure. Dawson says, 44 The man who is fond of 
books is usually a man of lofty thoughts and elevated 
opinions." The instructor who turns out a pupil who 
loves to read has done more than he who has his pupil to 
read much. The love of good reading is a safeguard to 
character which can not be estimated. Only good readers 
have this love for good reading. Gibbon says, 4i My early 
and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for 
the treasures of India." Let teachers and parents find 
the way to teach pupils to love to read rather than to read. 

Heading in our courses of study is not continued long 
enough. Reading as an art is soon passed, and pupils are 
expected to be found in many studies more important (?), 
more learned than ordinary English reading. You rarely 
find pupils now of any advancement studying reading in 
the schools. They have been advanced beyond this. 

The matter in our present readers from which our 
pupils are taught is too cold and unfeeling. There must 
be feeling in our reading if we would hold the student. 
Why are many of our } r oung people in school found wast- 
ing their time over trashy novels? I think 1 have the an- 
swer. The novels are full of feeling. They read them 
and weep over them. Let the good reading matter in our 
text-books be such as to bring tears to the eyes of our 
learners, and many novels will go unread. Let the warm, 
feeling, heart-reaching literature be restored to our text- 
books, by all means. Remember, children have feelings 
that must be fed and educated, as well as intellect. 

What to read is of much importance. There is now 
much that is good, and more, shall I say, that is bad? 

5 



ISO SHORT TALKS. 

One is safe on biography and history which are true. 
Lincoln is said to have read in youth a " Life of Washing- 
ton," " iEsop's Fables," and "Pilgrim's Progress." 
With these only, he was better read than many young men 
who have read ten times as much. 

Books of travel are excellent. They have the interest 
of a novel, and are most instructive. No one should 
neglect standard novels and books of poetry. Be sure 
both are standard. Scientific works are most admirable. 
Let them be read with much thought and thorough in- 
vestigation. 1 must commend especially the Science of 
Self, or Phrenology and Physiology. The more we learn 
of self, the better we care for self. Let all our young 
readers learn of body and mind. Lastly, let me say, do 
not fail to read at least one good weekly paper. Nothing 
can take its place. We must keep abreast somewhat of 
our own times. The good newspaper is the means. Let 
it be a good one. Goldsmith says, "In a polite age 
almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more 
instruction from the press than the pulpit/' 

Row to read is of more importance, possibly, than what 
to read. Addison says, reading is to the mind what exer- 
cise is to the body. How shall we take this exercise? I 
would suggest the following as worth a trial: 

1. Read regularly daily. 

Nothing can be accomplished by starts and jumps, ex- 
cept the formation of a bad habit. We do not defer our 
meals, but take them with much regularity, and will not 
allow little things to interfere with them. Let it be so 
with our mental food. We do not try to eat enough on Sun- 
days to do us all the week, neither should we depend on 
one day in the week to supply us mental food. Maybe 
we can only read a very little each day. Very well; if this 
is done with regularity it will accomplish wonders. 

2. Read deep rather than broad. 

Kobertson says, " I read hard or not at all." A good 



READING. 131 

way. Do not trifle. Do not read unless you can put the 
whole mind on the subject. Half-way reading is worse 
than none. 

3. Do not read to kill time 

Killing Time is a bad business to engage in, anyway, and 
a book is the poorest weapon to use on the old man. He 
will turn t against you aud kill all your love and rever- 
ence for good books. 

4. Do not read a booh simply to be able to say you have 
read it. 

Such reading is almost sure to be done in such a way as 
to do more harm than good. You will not work hard 
enough at it. Your reading will lack interest, and you are 
too apt to close the book in disgust. 

5. Consult your dictionary. 

Calling words is not reading. One can not read unless 
he know the meaning of the words. The dictionary is the 
very best place to learn this. Eeading will help us to a 
good vocabulary sooner than anything, if pursued aright. 
Carlyle says, " We have not read an author till we have 
seen his object, whatever it may be, as he saw it." "We 
can not possibly do this unless we get the meaning of 
every word. 

6. Read sloivly. 

" Learn to read slow; all other graces 
Will follow in their proper places. ' ' 

Reading too fast is a great fault with children at school. 
They seem to think that when they have learned to call 
words rapidly they have learned to read well. Such 
should be immediately undeceived. To get the thought 
requires time. Miss Martineau read only a page an hour. 
Burke always read slowly enough to make the book his 
own — a possession for life. To pass over a page and not 
get the thought, is injury. Therefore, go slow. 

7. Reread often. 

Samuel Johnson says, " What is twice read is common- 



132 SHORT TALKS. 

ly better remembered than what is transcribed.'* Gold- 
smith says that when he read a new book it was like gain- 
ing a new friend, but when he read over a book he had 
perused before, it resembled the meeting with an old 
friend. Which is the more pleasant? From which do we 
usually get the more benefit? Should you fail to get the 
full meaning at the first reading, by all means reread. 
Most books that are worth reading are worth twice reading. 

8. Read with pencil in hand. 

It is well either to mark the good passages, the centers 
of thought, or make a note of them on a blank-book kept 
for the purpose. This serves to stop us long enough on 
that thought to help us to hold it. Some one has said 
that it is not what we read, but what we remember, which 
makes us wise. While this is not all true, it has some 
truth. It is well to remember the thoughts of others, 
especially if our own are scarce. It is a great pleasure to 
me to read a book which others have marked. I behold 
in those marks on the margin their footprints, the inclina- 
tion of their minds, the shape of their characters. 

9. Attempt to reproduce what is read. 

This may be done either mentally, orally, or with pencil 
or pen. The latter is much the best, if you have the time 
for it. This is one of the finest mental drills, and I com- 
mend it to all who are educating themselves or others. 
To get the most of what we read, or the sermons or 
speeches we hear, let them be reproduced as nearly as pos- 
sible in writing, either in whole or by outline. The latter 
is better after you have learned the art, and are doing the 
work, both as a mental drill and to keep what you have 
learned. Paul told Timothy to give himself to " read- 
ing/ 5 and " to meditate on these things. " That is just 
what the student does when he attempts to reproduce by 
outline what he has read or heard spoken. 

I can not better close this in the allotted space than to 
give the reader the following words from Emerson: 



READING. 133 

" 'Tis the good reader that makes the good book. A 
good head can not read amiss. In every book he finds pas- 
sages which seem confidences, or asides, hidden from all 
else, and unmistakably meant for his ear." 



XXII.— TALKING. 

We know not what we do 
When we speak words. 



—Shelley. 



Art approaches nearest to nature, some one has said, in 
words. Words, speech, talking, then, are common 
things. Yet there is enough of art in talking to make it 
an interesting study, and enough of nature to make it a 
very agreeable practice. Talking, after a fashion, is so 
easy that almost all do too much of it. Yet so difficult is 
good talking that we find it seldom. It is one of a num- 
ber of such common things that we do not think it worth 
our time to learn to do well. It ought to be made an 
art in every family, and one that receives much attention. 
If the mothers, the first and best teachers, would take this 
matter of good, correct talking in hand at home, and not 
depend so much on teachers in the schools, who usually 
receive the pupil after his talking has been much spoiled, 
we might soon have better talkers in every social gather- 
ing, as well as better talkers on the rostrum and the stump, 
in the pulpit and at the bar. Children should be taught 
to talk. As we have it now, much that they talk is not 
taught to them as good talk, but is such as they " pick 
up " around the place. It is natural for children to try 
to express themselves, but it is not natural for them to 
know how to do it correctly. We do amiss in allowing 
our children to acquire as much " bad grammar " at home 
in a few years as it will take all of school life to get out of 
them. Let parents, and mothers especially, take this 
matter in hand and give us a nation of good talkers. Let 
them, in the first place, do their best talking at home 
among their children. We often think anything good 

(134) 



TALKING. 135 

enough for home in the way of language. We talk well 
enough in company, are very particular in the presence of 
strangers, but let our words go " slipshod " at home. 
Some plain directions for talking might be good for us. 

1. Talk pleasantly. 

All can do this if we only try. If all do it, will not 
children learn it at home and become pleasant talkers? 
The pleasant talker is always agreeable. Children natur- 
ally talk pleasantly, and only take on the unpleasant as 
they learn it. If parents would not talk of unpleasant 
things and in unpleasant tones before their children, 
would it not have a very fine effect on our talkers in the 
coming years? 

2. Talk the best language you can. 

None but the best is good enough for you and your chil- 
dren. Make yours the very best you can command. In 
order that it may be the best, improve it each day by read- 
ing, and learning better words and expressions. 

3. Talk to tell something, not to hear self talk. 

The trouble with much of our talk is that it is empty. 
Empty words are vain things. Let your words be express- 
ive of ideas, and they will be welcome to the hearer. The 
something told, if it is really something, will attract more 
attention than the words. Yet much may be added to the 
thing told by its dressing — the words in which we tell it. 

4. Do not try to talk all the time. 

Others know something. Give them a chance to tell it. 
You will be the wiser, and they will be better pleased, and 
think more of you. No bore is as great a bore and as un- 
bearable a bore as the talking bore. He seems to think 
you have no sense or nerves, and that he can bore you till 
midnight and not hurt you. Then good talkers who are 
not such bores make the mistake of trying to talk all the 
time. You will find it much better to let the ordinary 
fellow say a word once in awhile. It may be that you have 
suggested by your talk an idea to him which } 7 ou have not 



136 SHORT TALKS. 

had, aud he may give it to you if you will only let him 
have a chance. Then for self-interest, if for no other rea- 
son, divide time with those around you. 

5. Talk in short sentences, and to the point. 

Usually the person who exhibits " linked words long 
drawn out " is not the interesting talker. Make your 
statements short enough for the listener to ask you a ques- 
tion at least. It adds much to the interest and variety of 
a talk to have some on both sides, and it will help you to 
make your points clear. Too much of our common talk 
has no point to it. Do not lose sight of the fact that you 
are talking to tell something. The talker who makes 
short, sharp statements, and comes perceptibly to the 
point, will be appreciated. 

6. Talk to oe understood. 

Some people have a very foolish idea that if they can 
talk so only some of their hearers can comprehend it, they 
are great talkers. They seem to think if they can use a 
few foreign expressions, and real literary idea, from an un- 
known author, and so express themselves as to make it 
sound well, and not edify, they are to be reckoned as ac- 
complished speakers. It is far better to say one word in a 
known language than ten in an unknown. We do not 
guard this point as we ought. Much of the misunder- 
standing which comes along arises because we do not talk 
so as to be understood. Words are strange things, and if 
we are not careful, we will use them so as to conceal ideas, 
whether we wish to do so or not. Beauty of language is 
desirable, but not such beauty as will hide all the strength. 
We should cultivate in every pupil the habit of expressing 
himself in the most plain and unequivocal language. 
Clearness of expression should be made much more of 
than it is. Our most plain and straightforward talkers 
are most highly interesting. Youth make a mistake when 
they think that the grandiloquent expression is the main 
thing to be sought in learning to talk well. It might be 



TALKING. 137 

a fine exercise in many of our schools and families to have 
students talk and write for a limited time in words of one 
syllable. These are our good old Saxon and English 
words, and we do not prize them as we ought. Much of 
style can be had long before the student enters into the 
study of that interesting departmeat of language. 

7. Talk to learn something. 

Many persons do not think of learning anything from 
what they say, and verily they are not disappointed. Yet 
we ought to so manage our conversation as to make it 
teach us something. By talking correctly, and along a 
line close to where our thoughts ought to be, we may 
evolve ideas to much advantage. The presence of the one 
to whom we talk will greatly aid us to learn if we rightly 
conduct the talk. 

8. Talk with all classes and professions. 

Every person knows something, and many times some- 
thing, that will be of interest and value to us. We can get 
it more easily by conversation with him than in any other 
way. Knowledge is a good thing. We should not despise 
it, even from the lowest. Despise not the day of small 
things. Despise not small talk; much of it is about some- 
thing which you know not of. It is very laughable to be- 
hold the dense ignorance of some persons on subjects 
which all should know. There has been an idea in the 
world that an educated person was not expected to know 
anything common-sense and practical. This is happily 
passing away, and education is becoming each year more 
and more useful and practical and common-sense. Let 
the prejudice against the common people die. Let our 
public schools build up a more sensible sentiment in favor 
of the brotherhood of mankind and the equality of all 
persons. Let them show us that there is much in the 
common people. Let them bring out the jewels and 
polish up the rough stones of the hills and the valleys, 
that our common people may not be considered below any. 



138 SHORT TALKS. 

Then let those who have held themselves and theirs above 
the common things call not that common which God has 
made with His own hands. The man in search of knowl- 
edge in conversation will not fail to talk with all. 

9. Talk about tilings, not pe?*so)is. 

Following this rule will make short many an otherwise 
long conversation. It is given as a " general " rule, to 
which there may be honorable exceptions. But if we will 
let our conversations run along the line of things, instead 
of persons, it will most commonly be much to our interest 
and improvement, and to the pleasure and delight of 
others. This requires that we have something to say be- 
fore we begin to talk. Almost any one can talk about a 
person of his acquaintance, especially if he does not 
know any good of him, and have no particular liking for 
him. But it requires preparation to be able to talk about 
things. There must be somewhat of apples in the mill 
before we can get cider from it. Finally — 

10. Talk little and think much. 

A pretty good rule to follow in most cases. Especially 
shun its opposite. Many talk much and think little, and 
it is most easily done. Much talk brings regret. Little 
talk and much thinking never do. Err on the side of 
saying too little, rather than on the side of saying too 
much. 

What has been said refers more especially to common 
conversation, A more dignified talk is usually called a 
speech. It might be proper to refer briefly to this kind of 
talking in this connection. In the making of a speech 
there are clearly two parts: First, the preparation; 
second, the delivery. The best direction for preparation 
is study, study, study. Study by points, study connected- 
ly. Have system about that study. Study until you are 
full of your subject; then you are ready to begin to think 
of expression. Many err by trying to prepare a speech 
by writing it when they know nothing to write. The 



TALKING. 139 

writing out of a speech is best only when you know some- 
thing to write, know what you are going to write before 
you start, know how to tell what you want to say before 
you begin to tell it with pen or pencil. Then your writing 
does not require to be memorized after it is written, and 
you do not depend on holding in mind a certain chain of 
words, but you hold only a chain of thought, and let the 
words take care of themselves, after preparing yourself 
thoroughly for this work. The preparation of a speech 
is a most valuable exercise for a student, if he does not 
make the mistake of trying to write it out before he 
has studied it. Make out the line of your thoughts as 
soon as you can, or determine some one thing, or the first 
thing you wish in your speech, and arrange that by saying 
it over to yourself aloud until you have that fact well in 
mind, and are able to tell it intelligently. Then take up 
another point or thing and treat it in the same way. 
Finally, chain all these points, or things, together by the 
cord of thought running through the subject, and you are 
then ready to begin to run over it from first to last, and 
view the connection, and criticise the work as a whole, and 
trim and cull until it suits you. Then if you are disposed 
to polish further, you might commit it all to writing from 
your memory, and then go slowly over it and cut out such 
things as might be best left out. This is writing from 
memory, and not memorizing from writing. 

In the preparation of anything, do the thing you are 
preparing to do in the way you are preparing to do it. 
You are preparing to speak. Learn to speak by speaking. 
Prepare for speaking by speaking. The delivery will 
usually take care of itself if the preparation has been cor- 
rect. If the above directions are followed in the prepara- 
tion, there have already been several thoughtful deliveries. 
This is what you want. No one is an accomplished speaker 
until he can stand before his audience and think and speak 
at the same time. Do this well and thoroughly in the 



140 SHORT TALKS. 

preparation, aud you will have little difficulty in doing the 
same before your audience. 

Then forget self and audience, and put your whole soul 
into the subject, and all will go well. 




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XXIIL— TWO THINGS AND A WOMAN. 

Some one has said that men may be divided into three 
classes: thinkers, things, and things o* things. The two 
last might be classed together. Then we would have 
thinkers and things. So in our illustration. It divides 
women into two classes, but shows two of one class, or a 
subdivision. Not because there are more things than 
women, do we make two " things " to one woman, but to 
show the two classes of things. " How are the mighty 
fallen." <l Look on this picture, then on that." Study 
the face of our " woman," then of the " things." What 
a blessing to have more women than " things." Yet 
there are more of the " things " than one might wish or 
expect. 

For man to throw himself away, to cast himself down, 
down, is bad enough. But for God's last, best gift to this 
world to thus degrade himself, forget her calling and her 
powers and " fall from grace," is deplorable. 

God could not make man man, and capable of rising, 
without giving him self-control, and thus permitting him 
to make or ruin himself. Man seems to be suspended be- 
tween failure and success, misery and happiness, destruc- 
tion and perfection. The very powers which God has 
given him for his upbuilding may be used by him for his 
destruction. Much more true is this of woman. Her finer 
organization, her deeper feeling, her better quality, all 
make her more susceptible to impressions. She seems to 
hang in the balance, and small things make or ruin. How 
easily is the current, of her young life especially, turned 
into the whirlpool and vortex of a living death. " Despise 
not the day of small things." 

041) 



142 SHORT TALKS. 

1. Your attention is called for a moment to our " fash- 
ionable thing. " 

She is more numerous than one might hope. Perverted 
Approbativeness and want of common-sense methods of 
education often bring forth this result. As sensible, 
natural methods get possession of our schools; as industrial 
education increases, her number will grow less. Our 
female schools and "feminine accomplishments " have 
cultivated to some extent this foolish fashionableness; but, 
thanks to progress, these " fashionable " boarding-schools 
are now giving way to industrial institutes and working 
women's training classes. 

T he female devotee to fashion is almost worthless. She 
is excelled in this quality only by the fashionable male — 
the " dude " of modern times. We may say of her, with 
the poet, 

" A worthless woman! mere cold clay, 
As all things false are. ' ' 

She spends her time either devising or following some 
new fashion, attending to fashionable parties and calls, or 
being led and guided by her poodle dog. If she have 
children, they are in the hands of an ignorant nurse until 
they are spoiled, then they are sent away to school. She 
can not become interested in reforms, for any reform that 
was worth anything must first reform her. She can not 
study human science and child culture, for to do so would 
be out of the fashion. She can not devote herself to per- 
fecting cookery; that would be too " common." She can 
not join hands with some worthy son of toil and help to 
build a home; that is too old-fashioned. She is not pretty 
to look upon, for her " fashion " has spoiled both form 
and complexion. 

2. How is it with our other " thing "t 

You will agree that she is not pretty to behold. She is 
at the other end of ruin. She is deserted and careless. 



TWO THINGS AND A WOMAN. 143 

Her aspect is as unnatural as that of the fashionable 
"thing. " She has never tasted that the world is good- 
she has never felt the throbbings of a heart panting for 
improvement; she has never been set on fire with a purpose 
in life. Her ideas are low and groveling. How is she to 
be reached? She is to be pitied. She maybe improved: 
there is certainly room for it. Much depends on the wis- 
dom and efforts of future educators and reformers. The 
family influence will not raise her, for that is of her kind. 
What can our public schools and industrial institutes do 
for this specimen? The big-hearted, hopeful teachers may 
try. Physical culture is needed, and will have its effect. 
Everything where she stays is on the same dead level with 
her, and she must be raised above it, out of it. Cleanli- 
ness of person and purity of moral life are the first stimu- 
lants. But all these good influences must come from 
without. Years of effort will be necessary to make a 
woman out of this "thing." Her aspiration must be 
awakened. Ambition must be aroused. Her environ- 
ments must be changed. "Education by doing " must 
be resorted to. This opens the door to manual training. 
She must be taught to do something, to make something, 
to produce something. This will give a start. There can 
be no doubt of the benefit to the intellect and to the moral 
sense in making something nice and useful. Here is work 
for the reformer, for the educator, for the benefactor, for 
the philanthropist. This specimen is found in country 
and city, even in this " land of the free and home of the 
brave. " The coarse, uncultivated, unwashed, unkempt, 
are growing up in our country of free schools. Both these 
" things " may be found in the metropolis of this country, 
in great abundance, and within a few blocks of each other. 
Would not a right system of education bring both to a 
golden mean, and unite them in our " woman "? Our 
past methods have not done it; but are they the correct 
system, or are they entitled to be called a system? 



144 SHORT TALKS. 

3. What shall ?ve say of our woman ? 

Possibly the less said the better. She speaks for herself. 
Her face is a study. Behold those eyes. See that chin 
and mouth. Study that nose. Who does not believe in 
Physiognomy? Her head is full of wisdom. Her heart is 
right in the sight of God. She stands for the wives and 
mothers of our country, of the world. She is what all 
ou^ht to be, can be. She is educated, cultivated and re- 
fined, but has no time to spend on the follies, fashions and 
foolishnesses of this world. She can hold up the hands of 
an aged father in failing health and prosperity; she can 
soften the pains and aches of a decrepit mother; she can 
make a home cheerful, bright and happy for a working 
husband; she can minister to the bodily and spiritual wants 
of her family. Especially can she guide her boys. She is 
their natural educator. All great men have had such a 
woman for a mother. This particular woman in our illus- 
tration was the mother of John and Charles Wesley. You 
do not wonder now that they were great enough to preach 
and sing into existence a great religious denomination. 
They were born of a woman, had a woman to counsel them 
in youth, and direct their first steps. In short, their mother 
was a woman. To her, to all faithful mothers, we may 
with Addison say: 

" Loveliest of Women! Heaven is in thy soul; 
Beauty and virtue shine forever around thee, 
Bright'ning each other; thou art all divine." 



XXIV. -1NHABIT1VEN ESS-LOVE OF HOME. 

Man's mind may be bent, biased, inclined, led out, 
directed in a certain way; but mental instincts do not 
come of training and education and environments. The 
idea so prevalent among educators and trainers of youth 
that the child-mind is similar to a piece of blank paper, 
and that its habits, inclinings and character depend entirely 
on the training, is an error of the old mental philosophy. 
Man's feelings, desires, instincts, hopes, fears and thoughts 
come from within, not from circumstances. From within, 
from the heart-head, man is a home-loving, home-having, 
home-keeping animal. In this he is not alone. All the 
lower animals have this feeling; all must have, do have, 
some kind of a home. Young must be reared, food must 
be laid up, life must be protected; home is the place for all 
this. Some roam at night, others go abroad in day-time, 
but all must return to the home almost every day. See 
those little birds near nightfall as they return to their nest, 
their box in the yard, or their accustomed place in the 
forest tree. How they bill and coo and twitter and talk to 
each other. See how much more overjoyed they are to 
reach the home just before a storm, or during severe 
weather. No doubt they talk sweetly to each other of the 
rest, the comfort, the joy, the sacredness, the shelter of the 
home. Who that has hunted the nimble gray squirrel has 
not rejoiced to see him reach his home in safety in the warm 
hollow of some friendly tree? See how he will peril life 
and limb to reach that retreat. Who has not felt his ad- 
miration rise for that brave old gander as he defended the 
home of his wife and future family? Woe to the unlucky 
boy who comes too near that sacred spot. Who has not 
witnessed the most heroic fighting among the lower animals 

(145) 



146 SHORT TALKS. 

for their homes? And what heroism can equal that of 
brave men defending their homes ? This instinct is univer- 
sal, and must come from within, does come from a primal, 
mental faculty. All must have a home. Every plant, 
every animal, every little insect is found at his home. 
Home and home surroundings keep many of them alive. 
If they are transported, something of their home and home 
life must be carried along too. 

Man is the embodiment of all that is good in all lower 
forms of life. In him, then, we expect to find this home 
feeling in its perfection. His need of home is so much 
greater. He lives longer; his young are more helpless, and 
are much longer in this condition. So it is. Man, of all 
things, loves his home. The feeling has given rise to some 
of the loftiest sentiments in all languages and literatures. 
It has come from the heart and reached the heart of many 
people. But it was left for Phrenology to discover and 
locate a mental faculty from which comes all this feeling. 
It was not one of the first discovered. Had Phrenology 
been mapped out from man's nature, as some seem to 
think, one of the first " organs " located would have been 
love of home; but in the process of discovery it was not. 
The discoverers early found this organ, but seem to have 
got it somewhat mixed with its nearest neighbor, Oontin- 
uitv. 0. S. Fowler often demonstrated the existence of 
both, thus proving that all previous investigators were 
right, but were only confounding the action of two distinct 
Faculties. 

In bestowing this gift, our Creator has given us a most 
precious blessing; in making it the very strongest, He has 
blessed us above all other creatures. In giving us this 
Earth for our home, our abiding-place, He has bestowed 
the very best on us. Had not sin entered and the Devil 
spoiled and un-paradised our place, it would have been a 
perfect Eden always. When Christ shall have redeemed it 
from the rule of his Satanic Majesty, and restored it to its 



INHABITIVENESS — LOVE OF HOME. 147 

pristine purity and loveliness, it will be a fit home for a re- 
deemed and purified people. Who will want a better? 

Since home lies at the basis of nearly all that is good, it 
becomes us to cultivate the feeling. Our government de- 
pends on it, our happiness in a thousand ways. We do not 
love home enough. We go from place to place too often. 
Too many of us are continually on the move. This tends 
to break up our patriotism. It is no light thing to sever 
our connection with the old home and move away. It has 
many of our fondest and sweetest memories. 

" How dear to rny heart are the scenes of my childhood!" 

Who has not felt that sentiment? It ought to be felt 
ten times more, and the feeling regarded as far more 
sacred. How to cultivate in our young a love for home, 
or how to bring out the full and free action of this mental 
faculty, ought to be a question with all educators and 
parents. But how is it to be done? Easily enough. To 
cultivate and educate and strengthen any faculty, exercise 
it. To exercise this: 

1. Have a home. 

What a pity that so many must be reared without the 
full joys and privileges of home! So many children are 
coming up in some one else's house, which at best is only 
called home. This ought not to be. This country is 
large, fertile, and much of it is still almost free to home- 
makers. Why do they not take hold of these beautiful 
spots and make them homes? Far too many of our people 
are homeless, and want to be. We must do something to 
educate this feeling of love for home. Almost all foreign- 
ers excel us in the mental development of this faculty. I 
mean those who stay at home, and are representative men 
of their country. The first step toward cultivating it seems 
to be to have a home. Own the ground beneath your feet. 
Have some place to "lay your head." Call some place 
" home " in deed. Possess it in " fee simple." Dirt is 



148 SHORT TALKS. 

cheap, and that is what we mast build our homes on. 
What a pity that so many are willing to go where they can 
have no home! It is a sad sight to see white men moving 
into the Indian Territory, where they can only be renters, 
sojourners. It is a sad commentary on our boasted repub- 
lican government when men say they can not afford to own 
a home. When the burdens of government become so 
great that it is not good and profitable to have a home of 
one's own, when every man can not do much better in a 
poor home of his own than in some one else's, it is time for 
statesmen to put on their thinking caps. 

The thing to do to have a prosperous country is to make 
it easy and desirable for each citizen to have a home. 
Break up the " plantation," and let us have the home. 
It requires very little ground to have a home, a prosperous 
home, if men will only learn the lessons of economy. Too 
many men in this country are working for some one else. 
Let them select a spot and call it home, and make it to be 

home. 

" Happy the man whose wish and care 
A few paternal acres bound, 
Content to breathe his native air 
In his own ground. ' ' 

" Cling to thy home! If there the meanest shed 
Yield thee a hearth and a shelter for thy head, 
And some poor spot with vegetables stored, 
Be all that Heaven allots thee for thy board, 
Unsavory bread, and herbs that scattered grow 
Wild on the river-brink, or mountain -brow; 
Yet e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide 
More heart's repose than all the world beside.'' 

Experience proves this to be true. But how can we 
cling to home when we have none? Yet he who has this 
clinging feeling well developed will soon have one. 

2. Give the children an interest in home. 

Let them feel that home is theirs, that they must have a 
home. To do this give them some part in the home. Say 



INHABITIVENESS — LOVE OF HOME. 149 

" our house, our home," not " my house and my home. " 
Teach the children to say " our home." That they may 
feel that it is indeed '* our home/' give them part of it. 
Let them have their room, and require them to keep it as 
a home, and in cheery, home-like condition. If in the 
country, let them have their part of the farm to cultivate 
and own the proceeds of. Let them have a part of the 
orchard as " their very own." This home-loving feeling, 
this bed-rock of all patriotism and prosperity, is well worth 
cultivating. 

3. Make home attractive to the children. 

This can be done in many ways. Home is not to be the 
most solemn and sad place on the face of the earth. Make 
it joyous; make it gladsome; make it lively. Young 
people love such a home. The father will often find it 
time well spent to go hunting, around the home, with the 
boys. Boys will be boys, you know, so it is the duty of 
the father to supply their boyish demands at home. Let 
them know that they can have all the fun, all the good 
things they can have anywhere, at home, 

4. Believe in home, improve home, 

A feeling of mistrust of our land and home has taken 
possession of us just now. We do not speak well of this, 
our home. We ought; it is all we have; it is much 
better than we think it is. Let us talk of how good and 
how pleasant it is at home, and it will soon be so. " As a 
man thinketh, so he is." Why not think and believe we 
have a good home. Believing is seeing and having, re- 
member. So, trust that we have, say we have, and soon 
we shall have things all right at home. Then beautify 
the home. It should be just as pretty as your means and 
your skill and ingenuity and planning will make it. On 
what can you spend your time to such good advantage as 
on the home? Home is an educator, a builder of charac- 
ter, a purifier of life and morals. Let taste be cultivated 
at home, Have flowers and music, birds and shady walks, 



150 SHORT TALKS. 

cleanliness and beauty. It does not take wealth for these. 
Only have a home, feel that you are at home, and that you 
mean to make it home indeed, and a very little means can 
be made to beautify it. 

5. Write home. 

So many must be separated from home early. The 
school takes them away. Then business calls for them to 
go out into the busy world; so home and its dear attrac- 
tions must be parted from, at least for a time, by the 
young. But you can still call it home, and, above all, you 
can write to the dear ones whom you have left in the old 
home to watch your life from a distance. Do not forget to 
send them a letter. Have a regular day to write it; not 
just any time when you can have the chance, but make it 
the business of some particular time. 

6. Visit home. 

The best thing connected with our Thanksgiving Day is 
that all are expected to return to their homes, as far as pos- 
sible, on that day, and experience again its cheer, its joy, 
its abundance of good things. Then comes Christmas with 
its home cheer. That should bring us all home, when pos- 
sible. Bates of travel are then made cheap, that we may 
go and return for a small sum, and it is right that we 
should do so. The annual visit keeps the memory green. 
So long as the wandering boy will write home each week, 
and return to see the old folks every Christmas, he is more 
likely to be safe. While he keeps his heart in close con- 
nection with that 

" Home, the resort 
Of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty; •where, 
Supporting and supported, polished friends 
And dear relations mingle into bliss," 

it is better fortified against the " fiery darts of the Wicked 
One/' 



XXV.— TRUTH AND TRUTHFULNESS. 

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again: 
The eternal years of God are hers; 
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies among his worshipers. 

Bryant. 

No character which we can build can serve us faithfully, 
and stand the test of years, unless founded on the bed- 
rock of Truth. So let us in the outset get hold of her 
whom to know is freedom indeed. 

44 Truth may lie at the bottom of a well/' in that it is 
difficult to get, but in our theology it is in the other direc- 
tion. Pilate asked the Saviour, " What is Truth?*' and he 
did not reply; but He had already answered that query: 
*' 1 am tne Truth. The devil is a liar and the father of 
lies." So we have the origin of Truth, likewise of its op- 
posite. 

Truth may be defined as the correct conception, or un- 
derstanding, and the correct statement, of things with 
which we come in contact. So there are two important 
acts in being true: first, getting the truth; and, second, re- 
porting it truthfully. The first process requires careful 
attention. But our Creator has blessed us with the very 
faculties of mind for finding out the truth, and we are 
under obligation to Him for their correct use. And in 
their correct use and the getting of truth He blesses us by 
strengthening and perfecting these mental faculties. He 
has also given us eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to handle, 
and minds to think about all we come in contact with, that 
we may get the truth of it all. Let us try to do it. Let 
us examine objects carefully as to size, shape, distance, 
weight, color, number, situation, relation to other things, 
value, hardness, etc.; and let us look into thoughts and 

(151) 



152 SHORT TALKS. 

things, that we may hear with equal precision and care, 
that we may find the truth. Mine, de Stael says truly 
that ki Search for truth is the noblest occupation of man; 
its publication a duty." It equally becomes boys and girls 
to seek the truth and publish it to others. "What a bless- 
ing has our Father bestowed on us that He has so well pre- 
pared us to find the truth, and to let it be known. May 
we honor Him in its search and publication. 

How necessary is this precious thing, truth. In our 
social life we depend on it every day. We could not regu- 
late our every-day affairs but for the fact that we believe 
what our friends tell us, have confidence in the word of 
our associates. And how often does a little " white lie " 
throw the social group into disorder! Think carefully of 
the things which you are to do from morning until night, 
and see how many of their results depend on some one 
else's telling the truth. As an accommodation to others, 
then, we can not afford to do otherwise than speak and act 
the truth. So in the business world. Nearly all the trans- 
actions of to-day are done " on promise." Confidence is 
the basis of trade; without it, the wheels of commerce must 
stop. Let business men begin to lose confidence in one 
another, and some one, or many, will suffer as the result. 
With what " jealous care" should we guard our words, 
our promises, that we may not injure others or bring ruin 
to ourselves. And so we might examine through all the 
acts of life, and we would find Truth a necessity. 

There are many ways of not telling the truth and learn- 
ing to tell the untruth. 

1. By pretending to be greatly pleased with persons or 
things when we have no special liking for them. 

Some persons seem to think they must be continually 
praising everything and everbody in sight or hearing. 
Such an idea has made many a lie. Such liars are too com- 
mon. It is a mistake that we must be apparently pleased 
with everything we see in order to please those whom we 



TRUTH AND TRUTHFULNESS. 153 

are with. Such " fulsome eulogy " is very thin, and can 
invariably be detected by those of common sense. The 
deceiver deceives no one so much as himself. Some one 
has said, " Speak well of all." I would not. Where we 
can not truly speak well, had we not better engage in a 
little of that " golden silence "? 

2. By being silent token tve ought to speak out. 

This is a very common form of telling an untruth. 
Children in school and at home learn this way early. 
" Tell no tales out of school " was an old rule which has 
made many a rascal, and allowed many another rascal to 
" go unhung/' It requires a good degree of manly cour- 
age to speak right out and say " 1 did it " when an inves- 
tigation is going on in the household or the school to find 
the *' somebody " who has done the mischief. Yet there 
would be more " honest confessions" were it not for the 
false teachings of parents and teachers. This " don't tell " 
policy is carried through all our families, schools, and civil 
governments, until one is pretty well satisfied that he is all 
right so long as he is not caught. Our present school and 
family government has educated many into the belief that 
the fellow who can do the greatest meanness, and not be 
caught, is the smartest and best specimen of manliness. 

3. Speaking part of the truth only. 

Our courts recognize this class of liars, and have pro- 
vided for them in the form of oath, " the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth." Many a man has had 
an easy conscience because he told only so much of the 
truth as to conceal the truth, in such a way that what he 
said was to him the truth. Parents too often set this ex- 
ample before children, to be imitated. The boy who stands 
by and hears his father give all the good points about the 
horse which is being traded, but notices that he does not 
say anything about that blind eye; or who is checked if his 
" untrained " caution should allow him to mention the 
bad eye, is thus taught that it is honorable and right to 



154 SHORT TALKS. 

conceal a fact which can not be told to his own advantage. 
Many traders make it a rule of business never to reveal to 
the purchaser any fault or defect in whatever they have to 
sell. Such lying is the same as paying in counterfeit 
money, and should be punished with the same severity. 

4. Speaking words which in one sense, the common 
sense, are false, but are true in the sense in which we used 
them to ourselves. 

A man had just moved out of the county in which he 
lived, and in which there was a public ferry free to all the 
citizens of the county, but not to any outside that county. 
On crossing the ferry the first time afterward he said, to 
" ease his good conscience," " I have been a citizen of this 
county ten years." In a sense this was true, but to the 
ferryman whose duty it was to collect the fare it was a 
complete lie. 

5. Then there is the old, common, point-blank lie, re- 
sorted to only in cases of necessity, or by the common folk. 

Either one of the first four will soon lead up to this. 
Yet this is not considered so smart, and is not half so 
popular. People do not praise the common liar. In fact 
we have known some persons who would hardly be caught 
with him, yet could tell and act the polite lie all day with 
perfect good conscience. 

There are also several ways of learning to tell an un- 
truth. Children who go to school day after day are thus 
saying to their good parents, " we are doing our very best 
to improve our time." This is the promise every one 
makes. It is. implied in his going to school. Any failure 
to come up to this promise is teaching you to practice un- 
truthfulness. 

Children who at school or at home conceal mischief in 
self or others, by look or act, are having fine practice in 
learning what is not the truth. If we could only get it 
into the minds of all our youth that it is wrong to conceal 
a wrong, and that each one is responsible for the acts of 



TRUTH AND TRUTHFULNESS. 155 

all in the school, in the family, in the state, that in deed 
I am my brother's keeper, we might have more truth and 
happiness at less cost. 

A very common form of learning not to be truthful, both 
at home and at school, but more frequently at the latter, is 
the putting before the class and teacher answers and work 
that is not our own. Our old methods of teaching seem 
to have educated the pupil up to the belief that to deceive 
the teacher is the highest honor. To make the teacher 
believe that the pupil has the thing which he says he has is 
in many cases the whole desire of the pupil. In every such 
case there has been erroneous, abnormal, evil teaching. 

So much for how youth may learn to practice deception. 
But in all cases there must have been some teaching. 
Children do not know how to lie when they come into the 
world, and it must be taught to them. It is taught very 
thoroughly and successfully. Let us think of some of the 
ways. Almost the first thing many children hear is an un- 
truth, and many of them are made to go to bed by one. 
It is a great shame that many mothers instruct their chil- 
dren in the meanest and most wicked lying even before they 
can walk. " Don't you cry, or the old bad man will get 
you." The old bad man ought to have you, mother, right 
now, and keep you until he sifts some of this foolishness out 
of you. " Don't go out into the street; an old bear will 
get you." " Lie still now and go to sleep. Don't you 
hear that old bugger?" (Scratching the wall herself.) 
When strangers come a very common compliment is, " Be 
a pretty boy now, or' the man will carry you off. " This is 
carried on in various forms as long as the child can be de- 
ceived, and then other forms of lying to him are taken up. 
One of the most common is a threat to punish. How 
many of these promises have ever been fulfilled? Children 
soon learn all these forms of lying. In fact, the little 
things are ten times as smart as parents think they are, 
and the parent is greatly shocked some fine day when the 



156 SHORT TALKS. 

little tot tells the same kind of a yarn he has been taught 
from the cradle. Another shock to a parent is when the 
child doubts his word. If you would think how often you 
have lied to him, you would not be surprised. 

Another very common method, aud very successful, of 
teaching children to lie is to tell lies to neighbors in their 
presence, or have them or the servant to tell them. You 
see Mrs. Uninvited coming, and say in the presence of 
children that you do wish she had stayed at home. Then 
you meet her at the door and tell her how very glad you 
are to see her. She stays only a short time. But you in- 
sist that she must sit longer, and immediately she is gone 
you complain that she stayed so long. Children learn 
something from everything. They learn fast. Samuel 
Johnson was in the habit of retiring to his study without 
letting the servant know where he was gone. He would 
not allow his servant to say he was not at home when he 
really was. Said he, " If I teach my servant to tell lies 
for me, he will soon be telling them for himself to me." 

Driving sharp bargains, and telling of them boastfully 
before children, is a most successful way of teaching disre- 
gard for truth. It is a great pity that every trader has 
not as much regard for the truth as he ought to have. 
Is it not generally conceded as right to do the best we can 
in any kind of a trade? Do not small children at school 
act on this principle? And have they not been most thor- 
oughly instructed at home and in the store? Is it any 
wonder, then, that many are made to say with Shake- 
speare's character, " Lord, Lord, how subject we old men 
are to this vice of lying?" 

E^ery one desires to be thought truthful. It is the 
greatest insult to intimate that one is not the very soul of 
truth. The greatest liar in the world will fight if any one 
tells him what he is. Why this jealousy to be considered 
truthful when lying is the most common vice? Because 
Truth is so essential, so important, so lovely and so pure. 



totth and truthfulness. 157 

Milton calls it the " golden key that opes the palace of 
eternity." He also says, "Truth is as impossible to be 
soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam." Let us 
bear this in mind. We can not break the truth, we can 
not injure the truth, and in handling it with such reck- 
lessness we only injure ourselves. Truth is truth for 
evermore. How lovely, how good, how delightsome! 
With what diligence should we seek her! She may lie 
hid, she may be at the bottom of a very, very deep well, 
but her discovery will well repay the seeker. Hazlitt has 
said, " One truth discovered is immortal, and entitles its 
author to be so; for, like a new substance in nature, it can 
not be destroyed." 

In our search for Truth many things will be in our way: 
our weakness and ignorance, our reverence for those who 
have taught us falsely, our prejudice, our unsteady, un- 
truthful habits. To discover that we have any or all of 
these is often harder to do than to find the truth which 
will make us free after we have rid ourselves of the hin- 
derance. We will also find many persons to hinder us in our 
search for Truth; many of them teachers in religion and 
politics. They do not want men to find the truth and be 
free, for this would destroy their avocation. Beware of 
that man who would advise you not to investigate all sub- 
jects for the truth that may be in them! Such an one 
usually has an ax to grind. Many men high in authority 
to-day are afraid of the Truth, and tremble in their shoes 
when the people begin to read and think. Bless the men 
and women who write and speak for the truth, who are 
in favor of a thorough and searching investigation into 
every subject which comes before men! Bless the men 
and women who devote their time and energy to finding 
and publishing the truth! 



XXVI. — MARRIAGE— PROPER TIME. 

Misses, the tale that 1 relate 
This lesson seems to carry: 
Choose not alone a proper mate, 
But proper time to marry. 

Cowper. 

In this illustration we have two results coming from two 
widely different actions: " We thought over the matter " 
— " We didn't." This gives the key. This picture is 
taken at twenty-eight to thirty. On the side of thought 
you see only happiness. One bright, happy, well-behaved 
child. Mother and father are happy. Things go well in 
this family. No scowls, scoldings, or lectures at this table. 
Before this man decided that he must marry he thought 
over it. Before he decided he would marry this particular 
woman, i£ he could get her, he thought over it. Before she 
said " yes/' she thought over it. Before they decided that 
the minister must be called in, they thought over it to- 
gether. That is the secret. Before any course was deter- 
mined on for the proper training and instruction of this 
child, they thought over it. " Whatever is worth doing at 
all is worth doing well " is a motto in this family. But 
what of our friends on the other side? Well, they did not 
think the matter over. They met at eighteen, fell in love, 
and could not stop long enough to think. The result you 
see. This is an ordinary meal time. What an uproar? 
Father seems to be lecturing the oldest girl, while mother 
is talking at the father, and gesticulating to the youngest 
member of this unhappy family. See that ten-year-old boy 
spoiling, and no one to help him. Everything goes wrong 
in this family. Mother is " worked to death," and father 
" has the life worried out of him." They did not stop to 
think when they could have accomplished something there- 

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MARRIAGE — PROPER TIME. 159 

by; now they have no time to think if it would do any 
good. Had they thought over this matter of marriage 
about five or six years longer, results would have been 
different. They " married in haste to repent at leisure," 
and now they have not the time to repent. Unhappy con- 
dition! Would that it were not so common. But good 
aud evil, joy and sorrow, light and darkness, laughter and 
tears seem to be existing so nearly together in this world, 
that many in search of the former find only the latter. 
Marriage, man's natural, and therefore happiest, condition, 
may bring no joy or gladness, but only labor, discontent, 
and grief. Yet the institution of matrimony is not to 
blame for this. Marriage is divine, is right, is a duty. 
Therefore, all should marry, with some exceptions. No 
drunkard should marry, and unless there is such a refor- 
mation among the women as will not furnish him a wife, 
there should be a law prohibiting this character the privi- 
lege of marrying. No man who is insolvent, and who has 
no visible means of support, should marry. No person who 
has inherited disease, who is not of sound mind and body, 
should marry. The virago and the woman who has de- 
formed herself with fashion, and destroyed her health in 
the dissipations of " society " should alike be prohibited 
from matrimony. Though all should marry, none should 
be in haste to consummate the joyous event. Its impor- 
tance demands mature judgment. The laws protect youth 
by making it illegal for them to make contracts, yet this 
most important of all contracts is often entered into by 
those not able to contract legally in the smallest things. 
Marriage was intended by God for men and women, not 
for boys and girls. " And the man" shall leave his father 
and mother and shall cleave unto his wife " — not the boy. 
Important offices are protected by law from the young and 
immature mind, but none require more protection than 
the office of "father of a family," the highest bestowed 
by a loving Creator. Does not this highest of all offices 



160 SHORT TALKS. 

ilemand the highest development of manhood? Does it not 
require as much of that precious commodity, manhood, to 
make a good husband, father and home-maker as it does 
to make senators, governors and legislators? If the best 
men should have the highest places, then only men should 
aspire to be "heads of families." But the boy and girl 
" in love " forget all this, or rather, they never stop long 
enough to think seriously of it. Yet loving is marrying. 
In this many of us do amiss. We do not regard it so. 
There is nothing serious now in a love affair; but there 
should be. Marriages are not made in a day; the cere- 
mony of the minister is not the marrying. Loving is 
marriage; therefore, only those who intend to keep it up 
through life should ever begin to love. By loving I mean 
singling out one individual of the other sex, and wooing 
and courting and loving that one to exclusiveness. This 
is often done by mere boys and girls, and many times 
brings about just such a state of things as seen in our 
pictures. But many times it stops before it gets to the 
place where the minister is needed, and that devotedness is 
lavished on another for a season with the same warmth. 
Such persons are destroying all pleasures of true love and 
marriage. In after years, when the time shall come for 
real, good, earnest, faithful love, they will find no place 
for it. Shakespeare has said truthfully, and from the 
heart, 1 think: 

" Oh, heaven! were man 
But constant, he were perfect; that one error 
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th' sins. 
Inconstancy falls off ere it begins. 

Every man should be ready to say to the woman he be- 
gins to love: 

' ' Keep your love true. I can engage that mine 
Shall, like my soul, immortal prove." 

The obligations of marriage require maturity of judg- 



MARRIAGE — PROPER TIME. 161 

ment and serious thought. Men and women too often 

can say: 

11 1 slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty; 
I woke, and found that life was Duty." 

By the not considering the duties and obligations of lov- 
ing and marrying, many have been made to ask, in the 
language of Addison: 

" Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, 
Hast thou more of pain or pleasure?" 

There should be joy and gladness in the hearts of the 
pair as they stand together in the parlor of the old home, 
or under the orange-blossoms at the church; but there 
ought to be more, much more, of seriousness than is often 
found there. This highest and holiest of offices of 
44 home-making " should not be entered into without 
many thoughts on its obligations, and prayers over its 
duties. The hope of our country, the safety of our Re- 
public, and the intelligence of our citizenship depend more 
on the home than has yet been realized. We look too 
much to the school and the church, and the various re- 
form " societies/" to purify and perfect our society. But 
a good start at home is worth more to any youth than all 
else that can be done for him. He who starts in the world 
well born, and having the aid of parents of good sense and 
sound judgment, has more in his favor than he who has all 
the helps of schools and society organizations. The home 
is God's organization for the building of character, for the 
growing of human beings. Parents can not lessen their 
obligations by substituting the school for the home. Here 
is a danger of our free public schools and cheap educa- 
tional facilities. Many parents send children away to these 
schools " just to get rid of them." Many fancy they have 
done their whole duty if they transmit to the child a poor, 
weakly physical constitution and enfeebled brain power, 
and then provide some kind of a school where the little 

6 



162 SHORT TALKS. 

fellow can be trained and educated. In many of these 
schools the already weak physical organization is wrecked, 
and the feeble mind ruined instead of strengthened. When 
will men and women stop long enough to think, and to 
think earnestly and deeply and effectively, upon this sub- 
ject of home making and family culture — think thoughts 
as wide and as far reaching as the importance and obliga- 
tion of the occasion demand? 

Another obligation of the married state which men and 
women are under is to make the most of each other, a 
mutual, reciprocal development. A self-made man is 
worthy of all honor, a self-made woman is fully as deserv- 
ing; but the height and perfection of development is 
reached only when, together, they devote themselves to 
the mutual upbuilding of each other. For this are they 
specially adapted, for this were their different natures thus 
created; the one to complete and perfect the other; not 
the woman the man, or the man the woman, alone, but 
each the other. 

Another weighty objection to early marriage is that it 
interferes with the boy's and girl's education; more often 
the former. While marriage should continue the man's and 
woman's development, the cares of early marriage are such 
as to hinder further mental culture, to say nothing of the 
too often dwarfed physical forms resulting therefrom. A 
distinguished minister once said in a sermon to young men 
at college that early marriage had hindered more in men- 
tal development, had dwarfed more characters, than any 
other one thing. At that time I was of impression that 
he was in error, but I doubt if he was not right. I have 
seen many a youth who promised fair to become strong in 
intellect caught in the meshes of a young love which he 
felt himself unable to withstand. The self-made man has 
rarely ever finished his education before twenty-five, and is 
not often in condition to marry just then. Yet many who 
start out on the road to self-development stop at the 



MARRIAGE — PROPER TTME. 163 

twentieth mile-stone and launch out into the sea of matri- 
mony, to be heard of no more except it be in want and 
weakness. Young man, complete your education and have 
something of an income before you call for the services of 
the minister in that event which should be all joy and 
gladness throughout your life. 

The unsettled condition of youth, though his education 
be finished early, even in his teens, and he have abundance 
of this world's goods, is a most serious objection to an early 
marriage. There is danger when two are together un- 
settled, that they may settle in opposite directions, which 
would be worse than if they did not settle at all. Before 
marriage both should be settled, and should know that 
they are so settled as to be adapted to each other. 

Again, youth too often, yes, almost universally, lose 
sight of all else but " are we in love?" They give them- 
selves up to that " sweetest joy and wildest woe." They 
contract marriage and begin married life with as little 
thought as two children make a play-house and " play 
we are married." And, like the latter, the quiet may be 
soon broken and the house spoiled. 

• In marriage, as in nothing else earthly, should " Thought 
be parent to the Deed." 



XXVII. —WHICH WILL YOU TAKE?— A- QUESTION 
FOR YOUNG MEN. 

There are important periods in life, that is, those that 
are more important than almost any others. Birth is an 
important event in one's life. Many a one is poorly dealt 
with in this transaction. 

Its importance demands more attention than is given to 
it, and the child of the future will possibly have a better 
chance in this particular than we had. Men and women 
are learning some things. Human science does progress 
somewhat, if slowly, and future mothers will know more 
of heredity and prenatal conditions and influences than 
those of the past. 

Marriage is also another important event, a pleasurable 
transaction, a turning point in one's life often, a contract 
of far greater magnitude than most people think. How 
strange that people refuse to think of and discuss freely 
and intelligently so important a thing as the birth of a 
human being! how passing strange that they think and 
talk so simply and lightly and even foolishly about mar- 
riage! 

Eight marriage! How transcendently important! On 
what does it depend? On right selection. When should 
this selection be made? Always before loving or marry- 
ing. To young men who have not yet made the selection, 
" tied the knot," our question is important. 

Our artist has represented two classes. There may be 
more, but all can be gathered around these. Number one, 
the stay-at-home girl, the all-around girl, the kitchen girl, 
the sick-room girl; number two, the dress-up-and-go-out 
girl, the " accomplished " girl, the parlor girl. You see 

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A QUESTION FOR YOUNG MEN. L65 

she is now at her dressing-case preparing to go out or to 
go to the parlor. She is never ready to receive company 
without further preparation. She must paint and powder, 
aud "fix" her bangs. She would not have her male 
friend see her in a work-dress for anything. Our girl 
number one is different. She is a number one girl. She 
has many accomplishments, not learned at a fashionable 
female boarding-school, which will do to depend on. Let 
us think of her more closely. 

1. She is natural. 

What an accomplishment! How few can boast of it! 
From infancy they are taught to be and appear unnatural. 
Mothers little know that when they teach the four-year- 
old girl that she must powder her face before she sees 
company, that they are teaching her to despise nature and 
rely on artificialities. They seem never to think of this. 
They are not sufficiently in love with nature themselves to 
care much about children's being natural. " Society " is 
full of ceremony and artificialities. Our natural girl is 
not so frequently met with as might be desired. There 
are many places where she is not found. I fear her tribe 
is growing less. So little is known of nature by parents 
and teachers, and so much of our present education (?) is 
but polish and mannerisms, that the times are not con- 
ducive to the production of natural men and women. 
There is such an effort to put on something external to 
self, rather than an effort to bring out what is in self. 
Educators seem largely to fail to get the correct idea of 
development, and they lalk much of " filling " the mind, 
etc. Parents have but a meager idea of what a human 
soul is, and its possibilities if it be developed. But some 
have escaped ruin and come out natural, and we present 
our girl number one to represent the class. 

She would prefer her own natural hair, although it 
would not curl, and although it were not just the shade 
which " fashion " said must match the complexion, to any 



166 SHORT TALKS. 

that could be bought in the market, though it might be 
real hair. She is not displeased with or ashamed of 
what nature has done for her in this respect. She knows 
that more depends on what is under the hair than on its 
color, care, or suitability. 

She is also natural in her walk. How few are. They 
try to walk " proper," and spoil all nature has done for 
them. How some folks do strut and twist! How utterly 
disgusting is a " put-on " walk! It deceives no one. All 
can tell instinctively the natural from the artificial. It 
only says that the performer is unnatural. Our number 
one girl is likewise natural as to her complexion. How 
rare! Few are satisfied with what nature has doue for 
them in looks. They think they are too white or too red, 
too dark or too freckled. Art must be called in to assist. 
Cosmetic and complexion lotion venders find ready sale for 
their wares. Young women are their best customers; few 
do not purchase. As medicine is more sought after than 
hygiene, so treatment with paint and powder is more relied 
on to give beauty of face. Some lose their youth before 
they do their foolishness, and so once in awhile we see an 
old lady whose hair is " silvered o'er " relying on the face 
powder for personal appearance. 

We might expect our girl number one to talk naturally. 
That is, there would be none of the put-on jerks or whines 
jn her speech. She could talk several minutes without a 
single exclamation. Not so with number two. She is 
your exclaiming girl. Board a train where there are half 
a dozen of them, returning from boarding-school maybe, 
and hear the e-x-c-1-a-in-a-t-i-o-n-s! Girls, do you know 
that exclamations were used before people learned to talk, 
and that people who can express themselves easily, and are 
willing that their words may have only a moderate and 
natural effect, do not use them? Exclamations have their 
place, but common conversation, or ordinary speech-mak- 
ing, is not that place. My young friends, do talk natur- 



A QUESTION FOR YOUNG MEN. 167 

ally. Mean what you say, say what you mean, and deal 
sparingly with extravagant expressions. 

Girl number one is naturally healthy. You may be sur- 
prised to hear that health is natural, but so it is. God did 
not intend that we should be sick. Some have strange 
ideas of sickness, even in this enlightened age. Few know 
the simplest health laws. Read the Talk on this subject 
in this book, and as much other good information as you 
can get, and learn to be well and take care of the health of 
any who may be committed to your care. 

Our sensible girl number one is also perfectly satisfied 
with her natural form. She believes her Creator knew 
what He was doing when He made her. She neither pads 
nor compresses. She knows she has lungs, heart and a 
stomach, and that it takes room for these important 
organs to remain in health and perform their functions. 

2. She cares more for self than dress. 

Strange as it may be, this can not be said of all. Dress- 
culture receives more attention now than self-culture. 
Many precious hours are spent over dress-making. Many 
a backache, and, what is worse, a heartache, is caused by 
overwork and too much worry because of present demands 
in dressing. Perverted Approbativeness makes us seek the 
approval of every one whom we deem authority on the sub- 
ject of dress, and ambition leads us into much pains that 
we may stand among our neighbors well dressed and 
adorned in the fashion. Men and women run into debt 
recklessly and irrecoverably rather than to be behind 
others in a show of attire. 

These expensive habits of dress keep many good people 
away from church, and many poor children out of school. 
Parents will not send their children if they can not dress 
them as well as the best. Now, proper dress is worthy of 
attention, and poor dress cultivates bad taste; but neatness 
does not cost all this worry and everlasting effort, and sew, 
sew, sew, that are sapping the energies of women and de- 



168 SHORT TALKS. 

pletiDg the pockets of men. Let our girl number one 
work a reform. Teach the lesson, my sensible young 
woman, that every one has a right to dress as suits himself 
or herself, whether it is in the fashion or out of it. Away 
with caste in dress! Oliver Goldsmith was refused admit- 
tance to the church because he would not dress to suit the 
bishop. Preachers still seem to have some peculiarities 
about dress. The regulation black, and the white neck- 
tie betray the preacher. Why should any one dress so as 
to betray himself? Why does society require that the 
young person must be known by her dress? This is all 
folly. Regulation dress should be relegated. And the 
girl who cares more for self than for dress can help to do 
it. Let intellect direct Approbativeness to the proper 
adornment of the " inner " rather than the " outer " man. 
Beauty of person is worth ten times more than beauty of 
dress. In this adornment the poorest may excel. Even 
the girl with one talent may stand a chance. Some people 
may never reach the upper strata in dress, but all can rise 
in personal adornment. 

3. Our girl number one cultivates good common sense. 
She is not always running after the unattainable, and 

seeking the extra " accomplishments," which are only put 
on. Nature has blessed her with a liberal endowment of 
good sense, and she is trying to repay the debt by using it. 
Kature must get very much disgusted with some people. 
They will not try to use what little natural talent they 
have. 

4. She does common things. 

Of such is life. All things are little and common in 
their beginning, and the prime reason why some people 
never do great things is that they are unwilling to do the 
little common things which lead up to the greater. Com" 
mon things are beneath the notice of our girl number two. 
She wants to study only art and music and fancy-work, 
and leave the " common " things for the common people. 



A QUESTION FOR YOUNG MEN. 169 

She could not think of learning to make a good biscuit, for 
all people eat bread — it's too " common," you know. She 
would not waste her time learning to cut and fit garments. 
Oh, no! these are the common, little, every-day affairs of 
life, and come in as necessities. Yet what can conduce 
more to the happiness of home and family than these little 
necessities? Food and clothing, and their right prepara- 
tion, are worthy of the attention of the most brainy of our 
best women. 

" We may live without poetry, music and art; 
We may live without conscience; we may live without heart; 
We may live without friends; we may live without books; 
But civilized men can not live without cooks." 

Give us the girl that can cook, and cut and make gar- 
ments to fit, and tie up a sore finger for a brother, and 
count money, and get the worth of her dollar in the mar- 
ket. The girl that knows something of the ordinary, 
earthly affairs of man. Music and art, poetry and philos- 
ophy, geology and astronomy, are all good, but they do 
not feed and clothe people, and minister to the wants of 
the poor and suffering. 

5. Girl number one can think. 

What a valuable attribute to woman! The past ages 
have not regarded woman as a thinker. She has been 
looked upon as the " ornament, the clinging vine/' and 
her powers as a thinker have not been duly estimated. Yet 
a sensible woman can think. Phrenological observation 
will show her possessed of as great Reason as man, and the 
results will prove this true. Place one of the thinking 
kind such as is our number one girl, in the classes in mathe- 
matics and sciences by the side of the young men, and see 
how the grades show her to stand. Seven times in ten a 
young lady with equal advantages will lead in a graduating 
class of both sexes. Let me here, incidentally, make an 



170 SHORT TALKS. 

unanswerable argument for the co-education of the sexes 
all the way through the course. 

Woman is quicker, smarter and brighter than man, and 
her presence everywhere and under all circumstances in- 
spires him to greater effort, and his achievements are pro- 
portionably heightened. What folly, then, for Church, 
State, parent or teacher to deprive our male youth of this 
stimulus to action at the time when it is most needed! Let 
our educators study Nature and her divine and perfect 
laws, and apply these principles in the training of youth, 
and we shall have more young ladies that can think. Let 
our girls know that they can think, that thinking is their 
province, that they are something more than creatures of 
feeling and sentiment, and our present erroneous ideas of 
woman's sphere may be changed. 




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XXVIII. —SHALL 1 TAKE HIM?— A QUESTION 
FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

As is the husband the wife is; thou art mated with a clown, 
And the coarseness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. 

Tennyson. 

I hope every one of you, at some time in life, will have 
to answer this question. I trust none of you will be old 
maids from necessity. To be one from choice is not so 
bad, and is very rare, so rare it will do to write aboul, but 
to be one from necessity is a secret which will never do to 
tell. Marriage is the natural condition of every man and 
woman, and therefore is a duty each of us must fulfill. So 
some time in life we must answer this question. You see 
in the picture a bright, well-educated, refined, young lady 
trying to solve this question. The young man has just 
left her presence, and has left in her heart this question. 
To help her answer it let us take a look at the young man. 
He is rather good-looking, well-dressed, and does not look 
at all dull or lazy or foolish. He or his father or a rich 
uncle has some money. He stands well in the town. He 
is at the " sociables " given by the best ladies of the com- 
munity. What else about him? Well, you see he smokes, 
and that almost in the presence of his sweetheart. He 
takes life easy. He does not trouble about anything. He 
is your " go-lightly " young man, your thoughtless young 
man. He has not been in school since he was a little boy. 
Then he was bright, and stood at the head of his classes. 
He did not have time to go to school any longer; he had 
to go into business, or into society, or both, so he is not 
educated. He«is not always in his place at Sabbath-school, 

(171) 



172 SHORT TALKS. 

and has been heard to speak lightly of religion. He 
makes visits to places of which he would rather his mother 
did not know. He meets persons at some hours whom he 
would not recognize in all places. He may be found 
" down-town " almost any night, or " out on a visit " if 
he live in the country. There is nothing particularly bad 
about him. He drinks his dram occasionally, but has 
never been seen out of the way with liquor. He plays at 
games, but not for money. He smokes, chews, and talks 
some words which he would not want his parents to hear. 

Now, shall you take him? This question is not asked of 
young ladies who spend their time as he does. No, no. 
He would not think of marrying a young lady who chews, 
smokes, or drinks a little, or is found in bad company, or 
is uneducated, coarse, or low. He wants the very best girl 
in the whole country; some one better than himself. He 
wants perfect purity of character in the woman he marries. 
To this kind of a young woman the question is propounded, 
and is left for her consideration. " Shall 1 take him?" she 
muses, and the question has often been answered in such a 
way as to bring misery in place of joy. My dear young 
lady, bring common sense to your aid in answering this ques- 
tion. You have learned that the place of wife and mother 
is the highest and most important in this world. You 
have been reared in such a way as to fit you for the highest 
place God has ever prepared for woman. You ask no 
higher honor than this divinely appointed " sphere." But 
when you marry do you not want a man? Do you not 
think it is just as much the duty of the man to make it his 
highest work of life to be a good husband and father as it 
is that the crowning work of woman is home-making? Do 
you not think man ought to keep himself pure and clean 
enough to take to himself and make a part of himself the 
purest and sweetest girl in all the land, without having thai 
in his make-up which will tend to drag her down? In 
view of our present condition of things, young ladies, these 



A QUESTION FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 173 

are important questions. Are } T ou going to spend years in 
educating yourself and fitting yourself for life, and then 
answer " Yes " to this question for a young man who has 
grown up on the street with a cigar in his mouth? Are 
you going to let your large Love overshadow every other 
faculty of mind, and persuade you into taking a man whom 
you know to be your inferior in purity, in character, in 
intellect, in everything that goes to make up life? One of 
two things some of you must do: take this kind of a man 
or live unmarried. The present surroundings enforce this 
on you. There are in the high schools now from four to 
ten young ladies where there is one young man. The 
saloons are feeding on the young men, and that takes 
several who ought, otherwise, to make you good husbands. 
The weakening, sickening, muscle and brain-destroying 
cigarette is abroad in the land, and it will ruin a great 
many boys whom you should have as good men. The im- 
moral practices which public opinion allows the masculine 
part of this world to indulge in will continue to take away 
from manhood, and thus deprive you of your right to a 
first-class husband. These are serious and important 
questions, and I propound them to you in all earnestness, 
and ask you to try to solve them. There is a solution to 
this rather one-sided question, and to that solution I now 
call your attention. I said you must marry a man inferior 
to yourself or live unmarried. For the present you 
must. But there is another and better thing to do. It is 
this: raise up a class of men equal to yourself in all the 
qualities that go to make up character in men and women. 
This is in your power, and if you do not have just such 
a husband as you want it is largely your own fault. When 
you demand the same purity of life and character in the 
man whom you honor with your love that we men demand 
of you, you will get it. Years ago I heard an old man 
propose this solution of the drink habit to an audience of 
young ladies: " Turn the back of your hand on every 



174 SHORT TALKS. 

young maa who touches, tastes, or handles the unclean 
stuff, and men will become sober." This principle is true, 
and will apply through and through. Young women, you 
want to elevate mankind. You are missionary in spirit. 
You waut to purge the world of sin. You want to see 
everything take on a look of purity and goodness. This 
will do it: resolve yourself into a committee of one, each 
of you, to see to it that no man whose life and character 
are not just what yours must be, above suspicion, shall 
ever claim your association. Remember, matrimony is not 
perfected in a day, and resolve now that you will not keep 
company with or receive " compliments " from any man 
whom you would not marry, if you loved him. Do not en- 
courage vice by associating with it; then organize to over- 
throw it. Ee-create public opinion along this line. It is 
all wrong. Men and women have equal rights in this 
world. If the man has the right to spend his nights down- 
town, to get drunk, and " carouse " around, the woman 
has. If the man has a right to smoke and chew and defile 
his body, so has the woman. God has not made two 
moral and two social laws, one for man and the other for 
woman. Public sentiment, " fashion," that most foolish 
of all things, has made these codes, and it should be the 
delight of every person of correct moral and social tastes 
to live down these unequal laws. It is the privilege, the right 
and the duty of every young lady in this land to make and 
keep herself just as pure and good and perfect as she can be- 
come, for the express purpose of carrying out that divinely 
appointed work of home-making, but it is no less the duty 
of every young man to do the same. Why can we not have 
are formation on this subject? Why will not woman join in 
one long crusade against all that is bad by requiring all 
that is good in her associates of the opposite sex? She re- 
quires it of those of her own sex; why not of ours? She 
would not be found in company with a woman whose 
character bore a suspicion, yet she listens to the flattery. 



A QUESTION FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 175 

and returns the compliments of the young man of known 
immorality? So long as these things are true, so long will 
young ladies be called on to answer this question finally 
and seriously: " Shall I take him?" 



XXIX.— YOKES. 

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 

Jeremiah. 

So thoroughly was the old prophet impressed with the 
idea that all must at some time bear the yoke, that he is 
said to have worn around his own neck a wooden yoke, as 
a sign to his people of what they would come to if they did 
not repent. This he intended as an object lesson to them. 
His teaching was that they must now bear the yoke of 
obedience, or later the yoke of bondage — that if they now 
bore the former, they might escape the latter. 

So it is yet. All must at some time bear the yoke, and 
it is still good for a man that he bear it in youth. For 
this reason I write to the young friends who may read this. 
You must be under the yoke at some time in life; youth is 
the time. Get used to yokes, train yourself to yokes now, 
and they will not have to be borne, maybe, in after years; 
and if they do, you will be ready for them. " Bearing a 
yoke," you know, means submission, and there must be 
submission. 

Let me speak of some of the yokes which we must bear- 

]. The yoke of obedience. 

Young people find this a yoke, a heavy, hard, galling 
yoke; yet it must be borne. We are in a world of law 
and order. We must be submissive to authority. If we 
bear this yoke well in youth, in the family, in the school, 
in our social life, we may go free later. The law has no 
terrors for the one who has learned obedience from a child. 
He feels right in the path of obedience. His neck is used 
to that yoke. But, oh! how different with the youth whose 
neck has never bent to this yoke of obedience! How he 

(1T6) 



YOKES. 17? 

squirms and twists and wriggles to get from under the 
yoke, and calls on father and friends to help him from out! 
He is, we will say, taking his first lesson in obedience in 
the courts. Many boys take it there first, and the father 
who has to pay the fines and suffer the mortification is an 
object of pity, and would be more so but for the fact that 
it is his neglect of duty, many times, that brought the 
youth to this. Every father should see to it that his son 
bears this yoke of obedience in the family. If the father 
knows how to place this yoke and how to train the neck of 
his son to it, it need not be sore to the boy. But obedience 
must needs come. 

Civil laws must be obeyed, natural laws must be obeyed, 
or penalties will follow. Both great and small, rich and 
poor, learned and ignorant, weak and strong, must bear 
this yoke of obedience. Sorrow will come to him who does 
not bear it in youth. 

2. The yoke of poverty. 

Nearly all must bear this. Few men inherit great fort- 
unes and retain them. Bad management, misfortune, 
war, disease, or something will usually come to sweep away 
inherited wealth. How much better it is that all bear it 
in youth. Many of our greatest men have borne it, and 
they would not have been great men if they had not borne 
this yoke of poverty in youth. 

Poverty, scarcity of this world's goods, brings many 
activities which develop manhood. Despise not the poor. 
Our greatest men will continue to come from this class. 
Not because they are better, but because poverty sets in 
motion those activities which educate, develop and make 
men. 

Many a poor boy has been ten times better educated in 
the struggle for meat and bread than is the boy who occu- 
pies his place in the academy for years. So, my young 
friend, if you are in straitened and unpleasant circum- 
stances on account of lack of this world's goods, thank GocJ 



178 SHORT TALKS. 

and take courage. If you do your duty this yoke of pov- 
erty will not always have to be borne. 

3. The yoke of labor. 

Labor, labor, labor; all must labor. In country village, 
town and city, there can be no exception. Where I am 
writing this, here in the center of New York City, the 
wheels of labor are never hushed. At all hours and min- 
utes, both day and night, they turn and whiz and rattle. 
There is absolutely no rest. Activity is the law. Work, 
work, work, everywhere, most of all in the great city. 
My young friend, never think of leaving the country, with 
its slow, easy, quiet, pleasant work, for the city, with its 
constant, hurrying, day and night pressure of work. Work 
must be done. The sooner we learn to bear this yoke, the 
better in many respects. 

Labor omnia vincit — labor conquers all things — and itself 
is the only thing that will overcome labor. Those who 
bear this yoke aright in youth may escape in age. This is 
the only way, nearly invariably. Only those who bear it 
in youth are what they should be. Without labor is no 
development, without development is no strength, without 
strength is no success in life. Work is a blessing. How 
foolish the notion of those who despise it! How silly the 
parent who tries to bring up his child not to know it! 
Many make this mistake. They say, " I had a hard time 
during my boyhood, and 1 want my children to have some 
pleasure." 

Many a time have I seen the father hire the wood cut 
or the coal shoveled in while the boy hunted or played. 
Yet his boy needed the very work of which he was depriv- 
ing him. Work blesses always. Despise not the burden, 
but bear the yoke with patience. The greatest blessing 
any school can bestow on its pupils is to teach them to 
work. It is not so much what we learn in school, but how 
much we work, and what notions we get of work, which 
do us good. The pupil who labors will come out all 



YOKES. 179 

right finally, whether he stand at the head now or not. 
Others may be more " brainy," "smarter/' but your 
working pupil will do to depend on, and will one day stand 
high. Down with the school that does not teach work. 
Let us have more working schools, manual training 
schools; fc they teach us to work, and to respect work and 
the worker. Down with our foolish notions about work, 
and the idea that the educated ancWhe rich and the 
"better classes" are above work. Parents, teachers, see 
to it that your children " bear the yoke " of labor in youth. 

4. The yoke of self-denial. 

A hard yoke to bear, and one of the yokes which poverty 
imposes. But whether or not there be poverty, there must 
be self-denial. We waut too much for our good. If 
children get all they want and ask for, they are spoiled. 
There must be denial. Desires must be controlled, propen- 
sities must be regulated. Nearly all are born with abnor- 
mal feelings implanted. These must be curbed, regulated, 
wisely directed. Self-indulgence brings ruin. So it is 
that the only child, especially of well-to-do parents, is 
seldom worth much. Most of our great and good men 
have been one of a large family. In this case there must 
be self-denial, giving way to others, deferring to others' 
wills and desires. This is good training, necessary disci- 
pline. How [unpleasant, how selfish, how almost mean 
and unbearable is the boy or girl in school who has his own 
way at home, who does not have to give way tojany! There 
must be self-denial, my young friend, and it must hurt. 
Let it come; bear it; cultivate it. It is the making of you, 
if you can stand it. 

5. The yoke of repentance. 

The world is full of sin; we are sinful. All unrepented 
sin must be punished; therefore, repentance must come, or 
later punishment must follow transgression. Yet, repent- 
ance is a yoke, and a hard one sometimes. He who bears 
it young need not bear it long. True repentance presup- 



180 SHORT TALKS. 

poses forgiveness, and he who will not forgive the penitent 
is not like the Father. Again, true repentance is accom- 
panied with sorrow. True repentance softens us down and 
tits us for the change which must follow. There must be 
new and different living now. Repentance prepares the 
way for it. Repentance may be bitter and a heavy yoke, 
but sweet will be the result. Seek it then, my young 
friend, with thy whole heart, while it may be found. Take 
this yoke upon you, and learn its lessons. 
6. The yoke of sorrow. 

To each his sufferings; all are men, 
Condemned alike to groan; 
The tender for another's pain, 
The unfeeling for his own. 

Gray. 

This yoke comes to all. How much better and happier 
is he who has borne it aright! It leads to better things. 
It softens, purifies, melts the hard heart. It prepares us 
for sweet joys and inexpressible delights. Littleton says: 

" Alas! by some degree of woe, 
We every bliss must gain; 
The heart can ne'er a transport know 
That never feels a pain." 

And Pollock, " Sorrows remembered, sweeten present 
joys." Then despise not tears, ye men of power and 
might. They are not signs of weakness, but of sorrow; 
and he who feels the most and sheds the most tears is the 
best, other things being equal. Girls, women, do not cry 
most, shed most tears, because they are weakest, but be- 
cause they are best. Byron says, " The test of affection's 
a tear. " 

Hide not thy tears; weep boldly, and be proud 
To give the flowing virtue manly way: 
'Tis nature's mark to know an honest heart by. 
Shame on those breasts of stone that can not melt 
In soft adoption of another's sorrow. 

A- Hill. 



YOKES. 181 

Then let us bear in meekness this yoke of sorrow. Our 
Father intends it for our good. It gives us softer hearts and 
gentler ways, and more loving and lovable dispositions. 

7. The yoke of Christ. 

" Take my yoke and learn of Me, for 1 am meek and 
lowly." 

And the further promise is that this yoke shall be light. 
Like all yokes, if borne aright, if borne in youth, this yoke 
of Christ becomes a pleasure, a delight. How joyfully 
does the old Christian wear it, and how much more joy- 
fully the sooner he begins to bear it. Then take His 
yoke, learn of Him in youth, you who would find the tak- 
ing of it easy. The young neck is easily adapted to any 
yoke; how different the old! Take our common ox; teach 
him early, and there is no difficulty in adapting him to the 
yoke; but try him when he is fully grown and set in his 
ways, and we have trouble with him. How hard it is for 
the old, hardened sinner to adapt his neck to the yoke of 
Christ! " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and for- 
bid them not." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you. " Let this be first. Let youth and early manhood 
be given to Christ. It is possible for all to learn and know 
and serve the Lord in youth. In old age it may not be. 
That is a very dangerous doctrine taught by the old hymn: 

' ' While the lamp holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." 

There is no scripture for such a doctrine, and it leads 
to death. If one chooses to give all his youth, and strong 
manhood, and old age to Satan, and only flees to our Lord 
at the last minute, he may find the door of mercy closed. 
When he would come, he can not. He may be given over 
to " hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind," and it 
may be " too late." 

So, let us bear the yoke of Christ in youth, and love it 
in middle life, and reverence it in age. 



182 SHORT TALKS. 

There remains one yoke to shun, one I hope we may 
never have to wear, bat one from which we learn much. 
George Eliot describes it thus: " That is the bitterest of 
all — to wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing.' ' Yet, if 
this yoke reforms us, there is hope, and it is well for us. 
It is good for us that our own wrong-doing brings this bit- 
ter yoke. God sends it as a great blessing. Out of this 
bitterness comes the sweet of after obedience. How can 
we thank our Creator enough for this fact, that repentance 
leaves us as good, or better, than before we sinned? 




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XXX.— " TAKE HIS GARMENT TltA* IS SURETY 
FOR A STRANGER/' 

Be thou not one of them that strike hands, 
Or of them that are sureties for debts. 

Solomon. 

In the picture you see a man about to lose his coat. 
One man stands in front of him, trying to persuade him to 
give it up peaceably, while the other, from behind, is going 
to take it by force. The latter is one of a large class of 
men who are glad to have the privilege of exercising some 
authority. Especially do they delight in being allowed to 
proceed against a person who is in debt, or who has failed, 
in business. They depend on this kind of work largely for 
a livelihood. They talk big, threatening words when they 
go to " close out " some one who has failed. They watch 
for a chance to report unfavorably on some weak business 
man, that they may get the pickings from the legal settle- 
ment of his liabilities. The Roman tax-gatherer was an 
angel by the side of these characters. The man who per- 
suades will get more, and get it more easily. When this 
man's coat comes off, it will be more in answer to the 
pleadings of the man in front than by the force of the man 
behind. 

But it is of the man losing his coat that I want to talk. 
What is the trouble with him? Has he stolen the coat? 
Oh, no. He has only made himself surety to some one for 
a friend, and, as the wise man has said, will, therefore, lose 
his coat. He failed to take the advice of Solomon. In 
fact, there are a great many young men now who do not 
" set much store " by what this wise man has said. They 
say Solomon's wisdom was very good for the time, but he 
was not nearly up to our present standard of knowledge 

(183) 



184 SHORT TALKS. 

and enlightenment. Young gentleman, you are possibly 
mistaken. 1 know of no modern " book for young men " 
equal to the proverbs of Solomon. My advice to every 
young man is to get a vest-pocket edition of those proverbs, 
and make it your constant companion. It will be worth 
more to you, if rightly used, than anything else with which 
you can fill a pocket. It is better than pistols, cigars, 
cards and such like things which often find their way into 
the pockets of our boys and young men. A boy with one 
of these little books will have more wisdom in his vest 
pocket than some men have in their heads. 

1 ask your attention to the following " well-timed " re- 
marks of this ancient worthy on the subject in hand: 

" My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbor, 
If thou hast stricken the hands for a stranger, 
Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, 
Thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. 
Do this, now, my son, and deliver thyself: 
Seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbor, 
Go, humble thyself, and importune thy neighbor; 
Give not sleep to thine eyes, 
Nor slumber to thine eyelids; 

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, 
And as a bird from the hand of the fowler. 
If thou hast not wherewith to pay, 
Why should he take away thy bed from under thee? 
A man void of understanding striketh hands, 
And becometh surety in the presence of his neighbor. 
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it (be broken in 

pieces), 
But he that hateth suretiship is sure. 

I am entirely persuaded that Solomon's rule is the only 
safe one. No person is sure or safe until he has learned to 
look with a caution, amounting almost to fear, on sureti- 
ship. Each young man should study the subject, and have 
some well-defined ideas on it, and be ready to " give a rea- 
son for the faith that is in him " to those who present their 
cases to him, asking surety. It is something that will not 



"TAKE HIS GARMENT." 185 

do so well to experiment in. Knowledge thus got is good, 
but it costs too much. 

The system of indorsing, " going security/' is wrong; it 
brings only poverty and distress, and should be totally 
abolished. Let every young man determine neither to ask 
nor go security, and the question is solved. Let every one 
know that he can not get security, and it will work almost 
as great a revolution in business as would the abolition of 
the credit system. 

1. It is wrong to ask security. 

It is asking too much. It violates that golden rule, 
" Do unto others as you would that others should do unto 
you." No one likes to be asked to go security; then, as 
you wish never to be asked, never ask. You can invari- 
ably locate persons asking security in one of the following 
classes : 

1. The improvident. This gets a large lot of them. 
Solomon says, describing the man who wants security: 

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and. 
be wise: 

" Which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, 

" Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her 
food in the harvest." 

Yet man, " created a little lower than the angels," is 
rarely so provident. Few will labor without a ruler or 
overseer of some kind. Man, with all his boasted intelli- 
gence and civilization, can not yet take care of himself and 
his without a "chief." Will we ever learn wisdom? 
Must we ever live " at this poor dying rate?" Shall we 
continue thus improvident, and go about asking our better, 
more provident friends to " go our surety?" 1 once 
thought the ant who answered the grasshopper so curtly, 
and with such seeming unkindness, was just the least hard 
on the poor hopper, but 1 now see she was right; and such 
an answer could but have a good effect on all those who 
ask surety. At least, all this improvident class. 



186 SHORT TALKS. 

2. The idle. Ballou says, " Idleness is emptiness; the 
tree in which the sap is stagnant remains fruitless. " 

What heart can think, or tongue express, 
The harm that groweth of idleness? 

Heywood. 

For Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do. 

Watts. 

Ifc requires a good deal of assumption, and what the 
world calls " cheek," for one who has hunted, fished and 
frolicked while you have hoed, plowed and reaped, to 
come to you and ask surety. Yet they come of this class. 
The idle seek help, and find it not; and they should not 
find it. They ask surety, and do not get it. To all such 
the answer of the ant is in order. Idleness is sin, even if 
one does not need his time or labor for the support of self 
or family; but " he that provideth not for his own is worse 
than an unbeliever." 

3. The lazy. For a big, fat, muscular, lazy fellow to 
come to an honest, hard-working, frugal person asking 
help or surety, is the height of impudence; yet they come. 
Laziness begets a condition requiring security, and laziness 
would rather beg than work. Answer the lazy man as the 
ant did the grasshopper; otherwise you encourage his sin of 
laziness. 

4. The mean. This is possibly the largest class that 
come seeking surety, and more of them get it. They are 
so good all at once; they are faithful to promise. " No 
more drinking, no more fighting, no more midnight revel- 
ing. Just help me this time, and I will be a better man. 
My wife and children need me t at home." How good, 
humble and obedient is the man on whom the hand of the 
law has been laid. These appeals usually touch the heart 
of mother, father, brother, friend, or some one, and the 
law-breaker is " secured " and set at liberty. But is this 



"TAKE his garment." 187 

right? If I get myself into the hands of the law, should 1 
not suffer for it? Should some one else's money or good 
name secure liberty or exemption from punishment for 
me? No; let the youth who tries his luck at law-breaking 
suffer the penalty — go to jail, to work-house, to prison — and 
law-breakers will grow more thoughtful, and violations of 
law less frequent. Many a heady boy might be reclaimed 
by the law but for the sympathy aud money of parent or 
friend. Many a one is utterly ruined by the parent's 
hastening to the rescue, and paying out hard-earned dollars 
to save the boy from a just punishment, or, as they think, 
from the disgrace of the penalty of the law. Yet a little 
of this disgrace of the prison will often save much disgrace 
of deeper crimes. 

The foregoing are the classes who ask surety, and the 
going surety for them encourages improvidence, idleness, 
laziness, or meauness; and those asking desire something 
they would not be willing to give. There is one more class 
who seek surety, and sometimes need it. 

5. The unfortunate. Yet a case of misfortune will do 
to study long and carefully before you decide to " go 
surety." Security means without care; but let 3'our 
security, even in these cases of misfortune, be with care. 
Know this, that nearly all misfortune and all " bad luck " 
come from carelessness and bad management; and these 
are only nature's — God's — remedies for correcting the evil. 
Spiegel says, " Fickleness is the source of every misfortune 
that threatens us." 

2. It is wrong in principle to go surety. 

It is not business. The surety is liable for the whole 
debt in case the principal does not pay, yet he has none of 
the profits, and nothing to do with managing affairs 
from which must come the money to pay the debt. This 
is contrary to all business and common-sense methods. 
He who violates one of these plain rules governing business 
relations need not look for success. He who indorses must 



188 SHORT TALKS. 

suffer. Misfortune, laziness, bad management or rascality 
is almost sure to call on him to pay the debt. 

3. Suretiship becomes a habit. 

Any one can soon make a reputation indorsing, and when 
it is known that he will " go surety," he will receive calls 
from all the classes mentioned. He secures for one and 
can not refuse another equally as good friend, and the end 
does not come until he is not able to secure. Almost any 
reader can call to mind some one who began by securing 
for good friends and small sums, but the result was in- 
debtedness for the surety. " He that hateth suretiship is 
sure," and scarcely any one else. Suretiship brings debt, 
with all its anxiety. Shun it. Accommodate your friend, 
lend to the poor, aid a fellow-man; but set the bound at 
suretiship. Take your money out of pocket, out of bank, 
sell what is yours for money, and lend to your good friend; 
but deny him suretiship when you would not, can not pay 
the cash for him now. For " Why should he take away 
thy bed from under thee?" 



XXXI.— TOBACCO- WHY NOT USE IT? 

In treating this subject I desire to be plain, but full of 
pity and compassion for the slave to tobacco. So anything 
in this talk which sounds harsh is against the vile weed, and 
not against the user. It is my object to convince by facts 
rather than argument. I hope to reclaim some who 
already use it, and to save many from the sinful habit. 

There is not space to say anything of the history of 
tobacco. Some one has said, accounting for its origin, 
that when God made a cabbage, the devil, trying to imi- 
tate Him, produced the tobacco plant. Whether it had this 
satanic origin or not, it is doing a good share of the work 
of his Satanic Majesty. The first human slavery of which 
we read in this " land of the free aud home of the brave " 
was purchased by tobacco, when the planters gave one 
hundred and twenty pounds for a wife. But to the ques- 
tion, Why not use it? 

1. It costs too much money. 

This is one reason, a little reason, possibly the least rea- 
son, why you should not use tobacco. Money is not the most 
important thing in the world, but a waste of money is a 
waste of effort and time, for money is only made by these. 
The sums spent for tobacco are small, taken separately, 
but " a little leak will sink a great ship," and a small 
saving will make a good bank account if followed up. Let 
a man who is spending twenty-five cents a week for the 
weed put this into a savings-bank, at a reasonable rate of 
interest, and at the end of thirty years he will have saved 
more than $2,000. This will be worth something, maybe. 
There have been cases where people have come to a condi- 

(189) 



190 



SHORT TALKS. 



tion where $2,000 would save much suffering. But take 
another user, the one who spends twenty cents a day for 
tobacco, and many spend more. Let him put his tobacco 

money in the bank, at 
same rate, and at the 
end of thirty yoars, 
when he is fifty or sixty, 
and needs a saving, he 
will have more than $9,- 
000. Young man, you 
can not afford to thus 
throw away your earn- 
ings. This country must 
now be spending more 
than $100,000,000 an- 
nually for the filthy 
weed. 




!No one can half work 



Fig. 15.— Mr. K., while using tobacco. 

2. It interferes with work. 

No one can work and smoke, 
and chew. Whatever your employment, you will lose 
much time if you have 
the tobacco habit. Is 
your time worth any- 
thing? If so, you can 
not thus throw it away. 
I have known many 
men who would stop 
the plow, the plane, 
the saw, or anything 
they were running, to 
smoke. Some have be- 
come so fond of the 
weed as to stop eating 

to engage in its use. ^-^-Mr.K., after four years' abstinence. 

There is no man employing help but would rather have 
those who do not use tobacco. Can the young man, de- 




TOBACCO — WHY NOT USE IT Y 



191 



pending on his own effort for a support, thus afford to 
lessen his chances to get a good place? 

3. It injures the voice. 

Observe it in all public speakers who use it. Most cf 
them must have access to something to drink. Many of 
them prefer wine, for a reason that will be told further 
on. If they do not have something to drink their mouths 
get dry. Their voices are " husky." Teachers, notice 
your pupils. There is a dryness and huskiness about 
most voices of tobacco- users, which grow worse as they ad- 
vance in age. Tobacco 
is one of the things which 
spoil the sweet child voice. 
We are poor readers and 
poor talkers. May it not 
be that more of this is due 
to the tobacco habit than 
has even been supposed? 

4. It is destructive to 
teeth. 

This is contrary to a 
common opinion that to- 
bacco is a fine preserver of 
the teeth. Doctors have 
often prescribed the use of 

it SOlely for the teeth. Fig. 17.-Mr. M., who never used it. 

But this does not prove anything. Doctors some time pre- 
scribe the constant use of whisky. Those recommending 
the constant use of either of these poisons should be de- 
prived of their license to practice medicine, or be sent to 
an asylum. 

Let us employ a little common-sense reason. The teeth 
will in every case partake of the condition of the mouth 
and alimentary canal. Let these become deranged, and re- 
main so for a long time, and the teeth will become in- 
volved in the disease. Tobacco inflames, poisons the whole 




192 SHORT TALKS. 

mouth and alimentary canal, and thus injures he teeth. 
Besides, its constant use wears them out. I have seen teeth 
of men who were not old, worn down level with the gums 
by the constant chewing of tobacco. Then, few users 
of tobacco take the time or trouble to brush their 
teeth, relying on their chew to cleanse the mouth. 
It is true that tobacco may for a time, by its narco- 
tic influence, relieve the pain in an aching tooth, but 
nine times in ten its use has brought the pain there. The 
lower animals all have much better teeth than men. 
They do not use tobacco. The teeth of the colored race 
in the South to-day are not half so good as they were 
a quarter of a century ago. They use more tobacco now 
than then. 

5. It spoils the mouth. 

Take the sweetest, prettiest, most rosebud of a mouth 
you can find among our pretty girls, and let it be engaged 
day after day in holding the cigar, the cigarette, or the 
snuff-brush, and it will require only a few years for it to 
spoil. The lips grow rough to accommodate themselves 
to their rough service, the corners of the mouth come down, 
as if trying to get a grip on something, the entire mucous 
membrane'grows tough and old-looking. In a word, the 
mouth is spoiled. And what a hard appearance it gives 
to the smoker! You can discover the user of tobacco at a 
glance by the appearance of the mouth, if he has not a 
beard to hide it. Young men who care for personal ap- 
pearance (and all do) can not afford to use tobacco. 

6. It injures all the senses. 

Possibly the first to be involved is the taste. This is 
affected at once. Tobacco has a fearfully burning taste to 
all at first, and this sense of taste must harden itself 
against the weed; and in so doing it will become hardened 
against everything else. Tobacco- users can not relish 
plain, wholesome food. They must use much salt, pepper, 
vinegar, etc. In short, they must have their food highly 



TOBACCO — WHY NOT USE IT ? 193 

seasoned, otherwise it is almost tasteless to them. And 
the reason why taste is so soon affected is that the entire 
mouth is coated with the deposits of tobacco, and the 
organs of taste are not allowed to come in contact with the 
food. When smoking your next cigar or pipe, force 
several "puffs" of smoke through a clean cotton hand- 
kerchief, which you can do by placing it over the mouth, 
and observe the deposits. This will give you some idea of 
the condition of your mouth. Smell will be the next sense 
to give way to a common enemy. Odor is a substance 
arising from the odorous body. Tobacco sends off its 
small particles; they impinge themselves on the organs of 
smell; and, being poisonous, injure these organs at once. 
Then smell must of necessity defend itself against so 
offensive an odor, and in so doing hardens itself against all 
other odors, just as conscience is hardened. No tobacco- 
user can possibly have a keen sense of smell. No tobacco- 
user can half-way appreciate the delicate odors of our 
sweetest flowers. Sight and hearing will also suffer. 
Whatever affects the nervous system will affect these, and 
the nearness of the eyes to the poisonous smoke will tell on 
them very early in life. We are fast becoming a spectacled 
people. Much blame is laid at the door of the school and 
the house, and justly; but much more might be as justly 
attributed to our habit of using tobacco. The sense of 
touch is likewise impaired, on account of the abnormal con- 
dition of the nerves. Fine penmen and engravers do not 
use tobacco; surgeons and dentists ought not, for the 
same reason. 

7. It depraves the appetite. 

The tobacco-user does not eat regularly. He overeats 
to-day, and has no appetite to-morrow. He arises in the 
morning with the feeling that if he does not have his chew 
or his smoke before breakfast, he can not eat; hence the 
foolish notion that tobacco is an appetizer. But it is not. 
Let any one try it who will. Some time when you are 

7 



194 SHORT TALKS. 

very hungry, say when you have to go without a regular 
meal, chew or smoke freely, and the hunger will disap- 
pear, leaving rather a faint weakness. Tobacco-users do 
not eat so heartily as non-users, nor are they so fleshy. It 
will add from ten to twenty-five pounds to almost any 
one's weight to quit tobacco for two months. 

8. It interferes with digestion. 

Most persons who use the weed do so immediately after 
a meal. This is the worst time it can be used. If you 
will chew and smoke, do not do so either just before or 
after a meal. The minute a chew is put in the mouth the 
salivary glands go to work secreting extra amounts of saliva 
to drive out the intruder, the poisonous weed. After half 
an hour's work of this kind they are poorly prepared to 
assist in the work of digestion while you are eating, which 
they must do or you suffer from indigestion. The mouths 
of most chewers are so dry while eating that they must 
wash down their food with some kind of liquid. This, 
also, assists indigestion. Leave off your quid and your 
pipe for several hours before meals; the longer, the better. 

9. It produces thirst. 

The beginner must have water soon after ejecting 
his quid. All suffer more when they do not get it. Let 
two boys work together, one a chewer, the other not. The 
chewer will always propose to go for water first. Yet he 
does not enjoy his drink of water like the non-chewer. It 
is insipid to him; does not satisfy his thirst. There is a 
desire for something else beside water; hence tobacco leads 
to strong drink. They are nearly always associated. Do 
you know a drinker who does not use tobacco? They are 
rare. Not all tobacco-users drink, but nearly all drinkers 
used the weed before they began to drink. Whisky is not 
so bad to the man whose mouth is coated with tobacco. 
It seems to relieve his thirst. Not every chewer will be- 
come a drinker, but he is on the- road which leads in that 
direction. 



TOBACCO — WHY NOT USE IT ? 195 

10. It leads to intemperance. 

First, it leads to the intemperate use of tobacco. Ask 
almost any user of the weed about it, and he will tell you 
he knows he uses too much. He did not use it in modera- 
tion long. Three chews a day at first; now it is ten to 
twenty. Many men are never without their quid, save 
while eating. Some do not take it out of their mouths to 
drink water. Tobacco leads to irregular, intemperate 
eating, regular, intemperate chewing, and occasionally 
intemperate drinking. 

11. It is a poison, and destroys health. 

The constant use of any poison is injurious, and if doc- 
tors could see that the occasional use of it is dangerous, it 
would save many of their patients. We have only to show, 
then, that tobacco is a poison, and all reasonable persons 
will admit the proposition. Any one having a very small 
quantity of tobacco can prove that it is a poison. If you 
are not used to it, place a small piece in your mouth; 
chew it freely for a few minutes. You need not take care 
to swallow any of the juice. The alimentary canal will 
soon absorb enough to satisfy you that there is something 
wrong about the stomach. If you are a user, you can have 
the same result by swallowing one or two good mouthf uls 
of the juice. If you do not want to try this operation on 
yourself, you may take two or three drops from the stem 
of your pipe, which has been in use for some time, and 
place it well on the tongue of a cat. Be sure to select one 
that you are not wanting to keep. One drop of the strong 
deposit of nicotine in the pipe will be sufficient to dis- 
patch an ordinary cat. If you experiment on a dog, take 
more. Birds have bean killed by simply carrying this nicotine 
near them. Other animals and children have been killed by 
an external application of tobacco, or its juice. 1 remember 
once owning a calf that became infested with vermin. Some 
one recommended that I apply freely a strong decoction of 
tobacco leaves. This was done. It destroyed the ver- 



196 SHORT TALKS. 

min, and likewise the calf. It is no more difficult, you 
see, to prove tobacco to be a poison than to prove that 
alcohol is a poison. Both are fearfully destructive of 
health, but it is the candid opinion of the writer that 
tobacco is the greater destroyer in this line. Common dis- 
eases caused wholly or in part from tobacco are headache, 
heartburn, dizziness, sick stomach, paralysis, consumption, 
general debility, epilepsy, insanity, dyspepsia, cancer, and 
many nervous disorders. 

12. It produces heart trouble. 

Heart disease is constantly on the increase, and investiga- 
tion shows that ninety-five per cent, of those dying from 
heart failure are users of the weed. There must, then, be a 
very intimate connection between the use of tobacco and 
heart disease. Only a few days ago, Mr. , a distin- 
guished statesman and speaker, fell dead, in the prime of 
life, and he fell with a cigar between his lips. Only a short 

time ago, General , the idol of the soldier, was carried 

away when he ought to have been strong and hearty. He 
s moked incessantly. Young man, if you " would keep 
your heart," do not use tobacco. 

13. It befouls the breath. 

Like whisky, it " will out." Many a boy has tried in 
vain to keep his mother from coming near enough to smell 
his tobacco-freighted breath. He knew if she came close 
to him he was discovered. He washed out his mouth, but 
he could not wash off the tobacco scent. Why? Because 
it was in him. It goes through the system. Let a person 
who has been using it for years take a hot pack, and the 
room will have an odor similar to a tobacco factory. 
Young man, do you want for a wife a woman whose breath 
is fetid with tobacco odor? Young lady, do you want such 
a husband? Let us reform. 

14. It injures the mind. 

It could not be otherwise. The mind and body are so 
intimately connected that whatever affects one affects the 



Tobacco — why not use it ? 19? 

other. Tobacco weakens every part of the body, and 
makes it more subject to disease; it also weakens the 
mind. Then, since it operates so powerfully on the nerv- 
ous system and the brain, it must, of course, affect very in- 
juriously the mind. The test has been made frequently 
in Europe and this country. Students in the same school, 
and under the same teacher, have been divided into smok- 
ers and non-smokers. The latter always excel in every 
kind of school-work. So clearly has this been proved that 
this Government will not allow the use of tobacco at the 
naval school at Annapolis and the military school at West 
Point. Any school can make the test, and it might be a 
good thing to have it made in every school. It demon- 
strates more forcibly than anything else that the weed is 
a bar to scholarship. It is the duty of every teacher to 
tell his pupils these facts, and at least give them a chance 
to make the test for themselves. Many students would 
certainly quit tobacco if they knew how much they are in- 
jured thereby. 

15. It unduly excites passions and propensities. 
Tobacco is often used just at that time in life when our 

youth do not need any stimulant. Unrestrained passions 
wreck many lives. Tobacco is a stimulant that will set 
these passions on fire to the consuming of the user. Most 
boys who go to ruin on this line are users of tobacco early 
in life. This is worth serious consideration by all parents 
and teachers. 

16. It begets weaknesses which are transmitted. 
Heredity is not fully understood. More and more is 

being learned about it. And the more we learn, the more 
we see the fearful responsibility of parents. Desires and 
acquired appetites are as surely transmitted as is personal 
appearance. No one doubts that certain diseases are 
hereditary. If any, why not all that are constantly 
present? Like parent like child. If the parent is a lover 
of strong drink, he need not be surprised if his son follows 



198 SHORT TALKS. 

in his ways. If the parent has a craving for tobacco, he 
need not be surprised if a strong desire for stimulants 
should break out in the life of his boy. 

17. It makes men slaves. 

He is free indeed who is master of himself. No 
tobacco-user is such an one. He is bound by a habit which 
seven times in ten he will never break. Not that it is im- 
possible, but the flesh is weak. Most all old tobacco-users, 
when they " come to years/' desire to be free. They tell 
you very pitifully, and in earnest sorrow, that they would 
give so much if they were only free of the filthy habit, but 
— but they are s-1-a-v-e-s. 

18. It is impolite. 

AM gentlemen users suffer on this score. Many, many 
times they find themselves with quid in mouth when they 
would give much to be without it. Many times they must 
disgorge their mouthful of " amber " where they would 
almost as soon swallow it. No tobacco- user has half the 
chance to be polite that the non-user has. It is impolite 
to chew in company, but he must chew. It is impolite to 
spit in company, but he must spit. It is impolite to poison 
the air with the vile smoke, but he must have his whiff. 
Poor fellow ! he suffers, if he cares. If he does not suffer, 
he is each day growing coarser and more impolite and dis- 
regardful of others' wishes. Which horn of the dilemma 
will you take? 

19. It is nasty. 

Excuse the term, please; but I searched the dictionary in 
vain for a nice one that would tell it, but could not find a 
better. From the time the little seed peeps out of the 
ground, all through the worming, the cutting, the " hand- 
ing," the stemming, the manufacturing, the chewing, the 
weed grows more and more offensive and nasty If it 
would confine itself to the immediate parts which come in 
contact with it, it would not be so bad. But it is carried to 
every part of the system. No part of the old tobacco-user 



TOfcACCO— WHY NOT USE IT ? 199 

is clean. It requires months for all the nasty stuff to get 
out of the system, after one has quit, unless he has a 
" pack." Why will man, created " a little lower than the 
angels/' make himself thus unclean and filthy? 

20. It is immoral and unchristian. 

It leads to immorality. It makes one disregardful of 
the rights of others. " He who steals my purse steals 
trash," but he who deprives me of the pure air which 1 
ought to have, and which, under God's care and wisdom I 
have been supplied with, robs me of that which he will not 
use, and which "leaves me poor indeed." This every 
smoker in the cars, on the streets, in hotel offices, in public 
halls, everywhere that people have a common right to go> 
does. " Do unto others as you would have others do unto 
you " is forgotten by the smoker. He enjoys his " puff," 
and cares very little for your sick stomach or headache. 

It is unchristian, and it is the strangest thing that all 
preachers do not so see it and " cry aloud and spare not." 
Instead of this they, many of them, use it, going into the 
very pulpit with quids in their mouths. Think of Paul, 
of Peter, of John, going from place to place to preach 
glad tidings, and carrying their old pipes, or their per- 
sons saturated with tobacco smell! Would religion have 
spread as it did? Can you think, my dear Christian friend, 
of the Master and His disciples passing from place to 
place, smoking as they go? John Wesley called it an un- 
cleanly and unwholesome self-indulgence. He would not 
license any one to preach who used it. The Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in this country is coming around to his way of 
thinking on this subject, and will not give license to a 
tobacco-user. The Presbyterians are doing the same. 
These things speak well. No Christian, it seems, can 
" present his body a living sacrifice unto the Lord, which 
is his reasonable service," when that body is full of tobacco. 
God does not delight in such a sacrifice. He wants a 
clean, pure, whole offering, without spot or blemish, or any 



200 SHORT TALKS. 

such thing. Let us think on this soberly, earnestly, 
prayerfully. God has not made us, and " bought us with 
a price, " to do such things. 

21. Wlio most injured. 

All are injured; none are benefited. Those of sedentary 
habits are injured more than those who have abundant out- 
door work, and who perspire freely. Youth are injured 
far more than adults; students most of all. As with 
whisky so with tobacco; those having highest nervous 
organization and most brain suffer most, and find it hardest 
to quit. The more difficult, therefore, it is for one to quit* 
the greater the necessity for total abstinence. 

22. How to reform. 

First, know that you are being injured, and that y#u 
ought to quit. Common sense and a little investigation 
will teach this to all. Sacond, determine to quit. If a 
Christian, implore divine aid. Take hot pack, or steam 
bath. Bathe often. Exercise freely in the open air. Have 
daily movement of bowels, if you must use warm water 
enema to get it. Eat food easily digested and wholesome. 
Avoid stimulants and rich diet. Keep yourself employed. 
Never entertain for a moment the idea of returning to your 
old habits. Shun temptation, and never believe you can 
take even a little chew, just for the toothache, without 
danger. 

The following, from one who has had an opportunity to 
know, is strong argument. On the subject, Tobacco, In- 
sanity and Nervousness, Dr. L. Bremer, late physician 
to the St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane of St. Louis, 
says: 

" Now, I do not believe that, with approaching maturer 
years, I am one of those who eye through pessimistic spec- 
tacles the rising generation, but I simply repeat the every- 
day observation, which I have never seen doubted or con- 
tradicted, that there is an alarming increase of juvenile 
smokers; and, basing my assertion on the experience gath- 



TOBACCO — WHY NOT USE IT ? 20i 

ered in my private practice and at the St. Vincent's Insti- 
tution of this city, I will broadly state: the boy who 

SMOKES AT SEVEN" WILL DRINK WHISKY AT FOURTEEN, 
TAKE TO MORPHINE AT TWENTY OR TWENTY-FIVE, AND 
WIND UP WITH COCAINE AND THE REST OF THE NARCOTICS 

at thirty and later on. It may look like overstating 
and exaggerating things, but 1 know whereof I speak 
when I say that tobacco when habitually used by the young 
leads to a species of imbecility; that the juvenile smoker 
will lie, cheat and steal, which he would not do had he let 
tobacco alone. This kind of insanity 1 have observed in 
quite a number of cases at the St. Vincent's. The patients 
presented all the characteristics of young incorrigibles. 
They had exhausted the indulgence of their parents, who 
saw no other way to protect them from their insane pranks 
than to commit them to the Institution. Had they been 
less favorably situated financially, they would have landed 
at the House of Correction or the Work-house. I do not 
know whether a lasting improvement was effected in any 
of them. There was not one among them that was able to 
comprehend that tobacco was injuring him; they were con- 
stantly on the lookout for obtaining it, by begging, steal- 
ing or bribing, and regarded the deprivation of the weed as 
a punishment. The sense of propriety, the faculty of dis- 
tinguishing between right and wrong, was lost. The 
father of one of them, who looked upon his son only as an 
aggravated case of a bad boy, told me that he himself had 
been smoking ever since his tenth year, and it never had 
affected him. In reality, being only forty-five years old, 
he was a wreck, physically and mentally, though he came 
from healthy stock. He could not or would not compre- 
hend that tobacco was gradually undermining his own 
mind and body, although his wife and his friends knew 
and saw it." 



XXXII. -WHY NOT HELP A MAN TO RISE? 

In our picture we have what is not very uncommon, a 
man who needs help. You see he is down; you see how 
he entreats, with extended hand, for help. And behold 
the attitude of the other man. He stands aloof. He 
seems to say, " I would not touch you with a ten-foot 
pole," and, " You poor, miserable wretch, you deserve to 
lie there." Hard thoughts these, but many men have 
them. Bricks they are in the structure, Character, which all 
are building; but bricks that mar rather than beautify the 
edifice. One pleasant feature about this picture: the 
woman. " Behold the woman." Not ashamed or afraid 
to lend a hand. She does not stop to ask who the man is, 
but her Love and Benevolence tell her to help, and she 
obeys. She does not even ask how he came there, but goes 
to work to put the unfortunate man on his feet. Bless the 
woman! A helpmeet for man has she always been. In- 
dividually and collectively, in person and in organization, 
woman may be found as a helper. 

But why not all help a man to rise? Why not the hard- 
est man cultivate this faculty of kindness, until he is as 
ready as the best woman to help? It can but make him 
better. Why not so cultivate these faculties of mind that 
we may have it said of us men, " As tender as a woman?" 

1. It can not he for want of opportunity, 

" The poor you have with you alway." God has given 
us human beings — the world is full of them — who need our 
help. Looking over the country you see many boys and 
girls who need education, need encouraging in their efforts. 
Why not help them to rise? In so doing you help your- 

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o 



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WHY NOT HELP A MAN TO KISE ? 203 

self, build character for yourself. It has been so arranged, 
either by God or our civilization, that those very young 
persons who need help to rise are the same on whose 
shoulders must rest the affairs of the world, commercially, 
religiously and governmentally, in a few years. Men who 
rise do something after they get up. Youths who are 
always up often fail to hold the high places. 

Again there are many in what some are pleased to call 
the lower walks of life, the " common herd/' who will 
adorn high places if only they have a little help to rise. 
Any school-boy can point out numbers of such who have 
risen and made life worth much to themselves and those 
around them. It seems now that there is less disposition 
to help the lowly than formerly. They are as deserving 
aud as numerous as ever. Why not help them to rise? 

There is the man bound down with the chains of bad 
habits. He has a poor chance, and needs help. Habits 
are strong things; they are heavy things. They load many 
a poor fellow so heavily he can not rise. He spreads his 
wings and thinks to soar, but about the time he feels he is 
gaining, down he comes under the influence of his old 
habits. Why not help such a man to shake them off? 
They were, many times, formed in ignorance. A word of 
information may help; a word of sympathy is never lost. 
Among this class is the drunkard ; of all the fallen, possibly 
the most helpless. We r all know he is foolish, idiotic, 
loathsome, repulsive when drunk, but he needs our help. 
Nothing but sympathy for the drinker. " Forgive them; 
they know not what they do." If there is anything that 
can reform and cure a drinker, a drunkard, it is kindness. 
How many men have ever been reformed and made sober, 
respectable citizens by any other means? How many by 
this? The most degraded drunkard is worth an effort. 
But our kindness should not be such as to condone, or in 
any way approve of, the drink habit. 

2. Then why not help a man to rise f 



204 SHORT TALKS. 

One may answer, " He " does not deserve it. The lowest 
deserves kindly treatment, and you can not afford to give 
any other kind, or even not give this. We too often reach 
hasty and wrong conclusions about the fallen. None are 
lost to all manly and womanly feeling. No one is so low 
but that spark of the material of which men and women are 
made is still alive, and may, by proper attention, be blown 
into a blaze. " There is hope as long as there is life " is 
as true of the moral as of the physical life. Physical 
wrecks may live long and bless the world; moral wrecks 
may become sound men and women. Another, in answer 
to this question, might say, " He is not one of my kind. 
I don't care to help that sort of fellow. He does not be- 
long to my circle. He is not a member of my church, or 
my lodge, or my society." What a narrow view of human 
life! How selfish! It is no trouble to love and help our 
brothers, our friends — those who help us; but what reward 
have we for so doing? This does not cultivate the very 
faculties of mind which need developing in the race to-day. 
Selfishness may require us to do this much. Benevolence, 
religion, require us to do more. In obedience to this law 
we are blessed. " It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive " does not apply to giving where we are sure we will 
get it all back with usury. Kindness must be a gift, not 
an investment. Another excuse often made is, " He 
might fall again." Well, he may, and should he do so it 
will afford us another opportunity to make character, and 
help him to rise. It can not hurt us, neither can it excuse 
us for not helping. It only proves the fallen the weaker, 
and, therefore, the more in need of our help. We may say, 
" 1 do not do that way myself, and I can not help those 
who do. 1 am not down, nor do I expect to be." No, 
but you may be. Are you right certain you can always 
stand, and go without help? We are all weak, at least in 
the weak places, and it is not certain that we are exempt 
from calamity. Boast not of strength, for you know not 



WHY NOT HELP A MAN TO RISE ? 205 

what an hour may bring forth. A very small incident 
may place you wholly at the mercy of others. 

Again, one may fear he would be degraded should he get 
down to raise a fallen man. At least, this excuse is often 
made. More often by those who could not be degraded by 
the fallen. Often by those who walk to the very edge of 
the precipice over which the poor, weak one has fallen, 
but, being stronger, they escape, and then suddenly become 
very much afraid of being contaminated by the fallen. 
The man who sells the whisky often would not think of 
allowing his family to associate with that of the fallen 
drinker — the pot afraid of getting smutty from the 
kettle. Another excuse which may be framed in the 
mind, but would hardly be uttered, it is so mean, is that 
the fallen may become a rival. Two young men, neigh- 
bors, start in life with equal advantages and qualifications. 
Both promise to succeed, but one falls. The other might 
help him up. Will he do it, or will he not rather " rejoice 
at the downfall of his neighbor?" Selfishness says, "Do 
not help him. If he does not rise it will be the better for 
you." Wicked thought. Harbor it not. It will injure 
the building. All the better feelings say, " Help him;" 
and the good feeling produced by helping a rival will more 
than pay for all the business he may take from you. This 
is when it is more blessed to give than to receive. 

'* Not worth my attention " is another sweet solace to 
selfishness, when Kindness says, " Help." Maybe you are 
wrong. Be slow to estimate human worth. Who can tell 
the worth of an immortal soul? There is always more in 
the lowly than we think. They are worth more than they 
would sell for, while those who are so ready to make the 
estimate and the comparison with self are rarely worth 
their own estimate. 

44 No time to waste on such fellows " would ease Con- 
science and Benevolence awhile. Yet one who would make 
the excuse would go down-town and lose time enough to 



206 SHORT TALKS. 

help a dozen poor unfortunates. Can time be better spent 
than in doicg good to a human being? 

3. The inducements to 7ielp a man to rise may he said to 
he of two hinds, internal and external — good to self and 
good to others. 

The very actions by which we assist a fellow-being, our 
Creator makes to bless us. The faculties of mind which 
can give the greatest pleasure are developed in these 
actions, and the wrong or abnormal action of others is 
prevented. The written laws of God are in accord with 
the laws of mind, since mind was made first by the same 
All- wise Creator. " Give, and it shall be given;'' it shall 
come to you again; if not in material things, then in mind 
culture, which is worth far more. Let us bear in mind 
that no kind act is ever lost. God will not in His economy 
allow it to be. It will surely bless once, and almost inva- 
riably twice. The giver is blessed sure, the receiver in 
almost every instance. 

As an external inducement and encouragement to help, 
we have only to look around and see the positions occupied 
by those who have risen to high places. The great states- 
men, the great merchants of every city, the philanthropists 
who bless the world — in fact, the great and good of every 
walk and profession are largely from that class of individ- 
uals who at some time needed help. Our society is so 
organized that the high in life can not hold their places. 
Their manner of living and bringing up their children will 
not transmit to these children those qualities which insure 
success in life, and the result is that the places of highest 
requirement must be filled by persons from the lower walks 
of life. This will continue to be true until the rich and 
great learn the important lesson that no child brought up 
in idleness, or with play and books only, is educated in 
such a way as to take his place at the head of the world's 
affairs. How long are indulgent parents going to forget 
this plain truth? They seem to lose sight of the very ele- 



WHY NOT HELP A MAN TO RISE ? 207 

ments in character building which made them what they 
are — strong, great, or rich. The hours which they were 
forced to spend in hard manual labor, their children spend 
in foolish play and idleness. Many parents look back on 
their lives, and seeing the very struggles and labors which 
made them what they are, resolve that their children shall 
never know these things; little knowing, it seems, that in 
keeping their dear ones from knowing these things they 
keep from them the very exercise by which alone men and 
women are made. So long as this feeling shall continue 
among parents, so long will the high places be filled by 
those who rise to them from below. Will you not help 
deserving, poor young persons to rise to these places? In 
so doing you not only benefit a human being, a family of 
human beings, but you benefit, bless beyond estimate, 
society. Good men, good women, are the real wealth of 
any country. Will you not help to make such out of the 
material which God puts in your way? 

And last and most precious is the fact that, in helping 
one to rise from a fallen, degraded state, in many instances 
you save a soul. " Let him know that he which convert- 
el h the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul 
from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." 



XXXI11.— THE OLD WAY AND THE NEW. 

Few things go on in the same old way. Some one must 
make a change; often many follow blindly. Many changes 
of custom are for the better, founded in good sense and 
reason; some are foolish and wicked. We should not be 
too ready to give up the " good old ways " in all things. 
Many of them are founded in truth, and are therefore 
beautiful. Fashions and social customs often change for 
the worse. Our illustration presents one of these foolish 
changes. Compare for a minute " the old " and " the 
new." See that strong, manly step of the former. 
Behold with admiration the womanly bearing. There is 
character in the walk of those two. That is, indeed, 

" A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
To warn, to comfort, and command." 

She is not ashamed of her place in nature. She is will- 
ing to be and remain a woman, and she is not ashamed to 
honor man. She feels that she can do it without robbing 
herself. Ay, even that to honor him is to honor self. 

What can we say that is good, and at the same time 
true, of the "new way." The man does not look so 
noble, upright, true and manly. He looks as if he was 
''stooping to conquer." He can not feel the same dig- 
nity and self-respect as he of the " old way." Much less 
does he have the same bearing and feeling toward the 
woman. 

But it is worse on the woman than the man. She com- 
promises more of her natural feeling. To be lugged along 
in this modern way seems to rob woman of much of the 
beauty of the old way. Who has not admired man and 
woman walking up the path of life, going to church, to 

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4 




THE OLD WAY AKD THE NEW. 509 

the marriage altar, out for a promenade, in the various 
" walks " of life, he offering his strong arm, and she gen- 
tly, confidingly, lovingly yet modestly taking it? But who 
with any taste for the fitness of things, with any admira- 
tion for the natural ways of life, can admire this new way? 
What is there in it of beauty? What of grace? What of 
naturalness? What of feminine modesty? What of manly 
deportment? Let us examine them closely by comparison. 

1. The " old way " is natural; the " neiv " is not. 
! Man was made strong by nature that he might protect 
woman; that she might have his strong arm on which to 
lean. How beautiful is the arrangement. Woman is more 
timid, and less forward and aggressive. She has less Firm- 
ness and Self-esteem, less Combativeness and Destructive- 
ness. She was not made for leadership in the battles of 
life. She was not made to be the head of man. She was 
not made for man to carry as a burden. She is in her 
place walking by his side, encouraging him, looking out 
for the softer, easier and higher ways. She has more 
Hope, Spirituality and Beauty. She knows more by 
Intuition. Her physical and mental endowments adapt 
her to take man's arm, and walk bravely by his side. 

%. The " old way " is beautiful; the " new " is not. 

This follows from its naturalness. In so far as we fol- 
low Nature, to be led by her, we seek and find beauty. 
Let a fine-looking man and a lovely woman walk down 
the aisle to the marriage altar in this " old way/' this 
natural way, and how many will say, " How beautiful!" 
Let a groom carry his bride to the marriage altar by her 
arm in this " new way," leaning on her as he walks, and 
who will exclaim, " Beautiful!" None — no, not one. 

3. The " old way " excites pure, good feeling; the 
" new " does not. 

No man can think as well and as purely of the woman 

who lets him take her arm to the shoulder, and carry her 

along the street in this *' new " way as he does of the one 



210 SHORT TALKS. 

who gently takes his. Woman's relation to man should 
always elevate, purify and spiritualize him. This " new 
arm clutch " can do neither. But does it not draw him 
down and animalize him? Say, you who have tried it. Do 
you have the same distant, reserved, modest, pure feeling 
for the young woman who permits you to take her arm, as 
for the one who ivomanly takes yours? You who seek 
purity of life, do you enjoy this " new " way? Does it 
bring out your manly gallantry? Does it make you think 
more purely of women? Do you feel just right? Are 
you willing for your mother and sister to see you in this 
relation? 

4. The " old way " is gentlemanly and lady-like; is the 
" new V 

Only a short time ago a correspondent asked that 
excellent paper, the " Courier- Journal," if it is proper for 
the gentleman to take the lady's arm, or for the lady to 
take the gentleman's. That paper's reply was, " Gentle- 
men do not take ladies' arms in walking out. " Was the 
answer correct? The same answer was made about the 
same time in a leading household journal of the United 
States. Is there not some truth in these replies? Does not 
the " old way " cultivate the gentlemanly in man? Does 
the " new?" Does not the " old way " leave the woman 
feeling just as much of the lady? Does the " new?" 

5. 7 he k ' old way " prevents familiarity; does the 
"new?" 

" Familiarity breeds contempt." In nothing is this so 
true as in the relation of the sexes. When familiarity 
comes in on one side, respect, confidence and love go out 
on the other. Men expect, yes, demand reserved 
demeanor and modesty of the women they respect, confide 
in and love. What a pity that women do not demand the 
same! Does the " new way " meet this demand? Does 
it encourage that perfect reserve that men admire? Does 
it not open the way for further familiarities? The writer 



THE OLD WAY AND THE NEW. 211 

has noticed that the *' courting " girls permit this " new " 
way, while those considered most reserved and chary of con- 
duct do not. Does this mean anything? It speaks vol- 
umes. 

6. The " old way " is modest; the " new " is not. 

Is this indescribable feminine quality on the increase or 
not? Men all down the ages have admired, praised, almost 
worshiped feminine modesty. Hear Pericles to the women 
of Athens: " As for you, 1 shall advise you in a few words: 
aspire only to those virtues that are peculiar to your sex; 
follow your natural modesty, and think it }'our greatest 
commendation not to be talked of one way or the other/' 

"Follow your natural modesty." Is that not good 
advice for our young women to-day? Follow not abomina- 
ble fashions invented by the impure, but follow your 
natural modesty. Do you do so by the " new way?" Do 
you not rather forsake it? I can not think any girl can 
feel as purely modest after practicing the "new way." 
It is evident she does not look so. 

If the " new way " is unnatural, void of beauty, 
impure, ungentlemanly, familiar and immodest, can we 
afford to forsake the good " old way " and follow after the 
44 new?" 



XXXIV. — HEALTH — ITS IMPORTANCE AND 

NEGLECT. 

In life, in character building, there are two important 
bodies, two selves to watch, care for, provide for, and feed; 
the outer self, the body of flesh, and the inner self, the 
body which inhabits this body of flesh. These are so in- 
terrelated that what affects one affects the other. Bearing 
this in mind will give us higher ideas of our fleshly bodies. 
This " house of our tabernacle " is very important, since 
it manifests mind, or our inner self; and our mental mani- 
festations and operations depend for their strength and 
pleasure on bodily states. " What a piece of work is 
man." How important that we know something of the 
body, its laws, and how to be well. 

Health is the normal, natural condition of the body. 
We might be led to doubt this, since there are so few sound 
bodies, but a study of the lower animals will prove this 
law. They are not sick, ailing, aching, weak and puny, 
as we are. They follow nature more closely. Our civiliza- 
tion has nothing to boast of in this particular. Let us 
compare our bodies with those of the American Indians, 
the untutored savages who were not good enough for this 
country, and what pitiable pygmies and weaklings we are! 
Place one of our best men on the road beside Black Hawk, 
and what a failure! Put one of our well-dressed, civilized 
and refined women beside the Indian mother, and what a 
fall we observe! What is the matter? Have not civiliza- 
tion, education, refinement, good government, riches and 
religion raised us above the savage in every respect? No, 
verily. Health, the most important earthly blessing, has 
been sacrificed. We have forgotten its laws, bartered it 

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HEALTH — ITS IMPORTANCE ANt> NEGLECT. #13 

for wealth, education, fashion and refinement; yet any of 
these, all of these, do not bring the blessed happiness of 
health. All these are misery without health; health, with- 
out any of these, is happiness indescribable. What will a 
man not give for health? Health is Life. *' All that a 
man hath will he give for his life. ^* No one knows how 
valuable, how happifying, how necessary is health until de- 
prived of it. And has God denied us this greatest of all 
earthly blessings? Has He taken it from us and given it 
to the savage and the beast? Not by creation. Oh, no! 
The highest, best and noblest of all His creatures should 
have, and by nature do have, this blessing. Woman — 
God's last and best creation — has been blessed with vitality 
above all his creatures, and her health should be the most 
perfect, her joy in life the most complete and unalloyed, 
and her life the longest and sweetest Yet how has she 
fallen! Not one sound woman in one hundred, say the 
M. D. 's, and men are no better. How we do drag through 
this " wilderness of woe " with groans, and lamentations, 
and sorrows which can not be uttered, when our Creator 
intends for us to go through in health and great joy, with 
praises to His name for His wonderful blessings to us. 

Oh, that men would learn how to be well; that parents 
would learn, and then teach their children; that preachers 
would study health laws as taught in the Bible, more, and 
that theology which is not in the Bible, less, and teach us 
how to live; that teachers in our schools would learn and 
teach health laws; that the state would see to it that we 
do observe these health laws! Without health we can do 
nothing as it should be done. How poor is our work when 
done with even an aching head! How utterly worthless is 
a sick man. He can not even eat. Food, which before 
was the supremest pleasure, has now become unbearable. 
Health brings pleasure. 

If you want learning, preserve your health. 

If it is wealth you seek, look first to health. 



214 SHORT TALKS. 

If you would be a useful member of the church, preserve 
your health. 

If earthly pleasure is your object, you must have health. 

If with long life you would satisfy your Creator, preserve 
your health. 

If you would be the very best husband or wife, take care 
of your health. 

If you would stand high among men, and praise your 
Creator from morning until night, seek first good health. 

If you would have the very best bank account, lay it up 
in good health. 



XXXV. -SOME HEALTH DIRECTIONS. 

Please bear in mind that health is natural, and that 
the tendency of nature is toward health, not disease. So, 
when we ignorantly or carelessly violate Nature's demands, 
and get sick, she goes to work to cure us. In fact, sick- 
ness is but a notification by Nature that we have sinned, 
and a warning to stop before we bring ruin. So, sickness 
of itself is a blessing, but its cause violation of law, and, 
therefore, sin. But Nature does the work of restoration. 
Medicine can only aid Nature. Much of it does not do this, 
and is injurious. He who takes least medicine for disease 
is best off. Eely on Nature to heal. Aid her by learning 
and obeying her laws, and you will have little use for 
M.D's. 

Following are some of the more important laws of life. 
This subject deserves more space than I can give it in these 
few lines, so do not think it exhaustively treated. Study 
it thoroughly. " Know thyself." 

1. There must be a regular supply of wholesome, nutri- 
tious food. 

This demand begins at birth and continues until death. 
There is a constant growth to maturity, and still a constant 
decay of particles which compose the body, so there must 
be a source of resupply. Food supplies, largely, the place 
of these disappearing parts. So, we depend on food for 
health, strength, our very life. This food supply should come 
at regular intervals. In normal conditions, appetite will 
inform us of the time when we should take food; but there 
is so little normality in us. Our nature has perhaps been 
spoiled in infancy. Most mothers spoil their children by 
overfeeding. Baby cries, maybe, because he is uncomfort- 

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216 SHOKT TALKS. 

ably full; he is given some more to make him hush. While 
he takes it, he is quiet. There is a little rest. Soon he 
cries and throws up his dinner. Then he is a " little 
better.' ' But soon he is stuffed again. Then some more cry- 
ing and spitting up dinner — regular indigestion in a three- 
wee ks'-old child. It comes from overeating, as does most 
indigestion. Mothers, have regular times to feed the baby, 
say every three or four hours, and soon but three times a 
day, and don't give him anything between meals, and 
don't trot or rock him, and more than likely he will not 
cry, have the colic, spit up his dinner, or require two hands 
to wait on him. Establish thus early the habit of regular 
meals in the child, and do not violate it in after-life by 
allowing him to stuff between meals. More children eat 
themselves to death than die of starvation. 

If these regular, temperate habits be thus early fixed, 
the future will take care of itself. If they are not fixed, 
the sooner we fix them, the better for us. Be sure not to 
eat too much or too. often. Better miss a meal than have 
one too many. Nearly all men find that a scant diet 
agrees with them best — not with their feelings, however. 
Though some can eat almost anything, and at any and all 
times, and not be sick, yet common-sense diet will be much 
better for them, and is a necessity to others. 

The food must be wholesome and nutritious. We do 
not look to this as we ought. We rely on a perverted, un- 
natural taste, and want what is good, whether it do us good 
or not. As a rule, the simplest, most plain and " common *' 
food is best. The vegetable world should supply us large- 
ly. With milk, butter and eggs, we ought to live on vege- 
table food. No doubt animal food makes us animal. An 
army of soldiers could not be raised from among vegeta- 
rians. They are not destructive enough. If you do eat 
meat, and think you must have meat, take the better^ 
cleaner kinds. Science is just now overtaking the Bible 
and finding out that " hog " is not fit to eat. The Bible 



SOME HEALTH DIRECTIONS. 217 

direction for eating is good, and worthy of careful study. 
But bread is, indeed and in science, the "staff of life." 
In this country we can have it made of corn, wheat, oats 
or rye. We find in these nearly everything we need. But 
it must be good bread, well cooked. Our wheaten bread is 
almost ruined in the grinding, and finished in the cooking. 
Compare a piece of Graham bread with ordinary " light " 
bread, and observe the difference. The former is sweet and 
nutritious, the latter "dead" and almost tasteless. Can 
we not have our wheat ground so the best part will not be 
destroyed? Yes, if we demand it. 

2. There must be a constant supply of pure air. 

Nothing seems so necessary to life and health as the air 
we breathe. We can do without food for days, and some 
have gone without it for weeks; we can live for hours with- 
out sleep; but the man has not yet been found who can 
live a single hour, or even a few minutes, without air to 
breathe. Air must do more for us than we now think. I 
think it highly probable that breathing the air, and not the 
heart, circulates the blood. Anyway, pure air is a necessity, 
and we consume it in breathing it as we do food by eating 
it. So we can not live by rebreathing the same air any 
better than we could by re-eating the same food. The re- 
fuse comes away from the lungs robbed of its life-giving 
powers, and not only so, but loaded with poison and death. 
So Nature must have this refuse matter which comes from 
the lungs, as she must all other waste matter of the body, 
put it into her laboratory, rework it, and make it fit for 
our use. This she does quickly, and if we give her a 
chance, she always has on hand a constant supply. How 
foolish are we when we shut ourselves up from this con- 
stant supply, and try to live on what little we can get 
through the cracks and key-holes! There is a world of 
oxygenized air all around us, and every house in which we 
live, and especially the room in which we sleep, should 
have a constant supply of pure air. An occasional venti- 



218 SHORT TALKS. 

lating will not suffice. There must be constant supply. 
Pure air and sunshine will work wonders in debility, in 
heart trouble, in lung weakness. "Throw physic to the 
dogs " and take Nature's remedies. Those who live in 
dark, damp, poorly ventilated rooms, and carry their um- 
brellas when they walk out if the sun is shining, ought to 
and do suffer. God has so arranged it. 

3. The body must be comfortably clothed from head to 
toe. 

There is much foolishness, much sin as to clothing the 
body. We are governed by fashion, not by common sense. 
Shall it always be so? Will people not learn that health is 
more precious than what people say or think of us? Will 
they never learn that to live and have a healthy, vigorous, 
robust body, even though we are not in the fashion, is far 
better than the cold, cold grave? or better even than the 
croup, phthisic, rheumatism, sore throat, consumption, 
indigestion, backache, headache, bald-head, or ingrowing 
nails? 

These wicked fashions begin early in life. In towns and 
cities boys wear " knee-pants." From knee to ankle there 
is no clothing but thin stockings. Ye fathers, try this 
some cold, wintry day, and see how it feels! Thus clothed, 
and with thin shoes, the boy is put in school at six, and 
encouraged to do brain-work. Mental work carries blood 
to the brain, and away from these unclothed legs and feet. 
They are, therefore, cold all the time. Colds creep right 
in through these exposed parts, and with excessive brain- 
work they finish the boy up or weaken him for life. Put 
woolen socks and boots on these boys that must be out, and 
let the pants come right down into these thick-soled boots, 
and your boys' feet are kept warm. So long as you keep 
the feet and hands warm and the head " cool," disease 
does not stand much chance to get you. What shall we 
say of our little girls, and the way they are dressed? 
Their shoes are thinner than the boys', and their legs as 



SOME HEALTH DIRECTIONS. 219 

poorly dressed. Woman's dress is an outrage on nature 
from head to foot. Shall we not have some improvement? 
Shall we not have our little girls at least comfortably and 
sensibly dressed? Some kind of a union undergarment 
might be worn, coming down to the very ankles, and there 
met with good heavy-soled shoes in such a way as to keep 
limbs and body warm, and so loose as not to interfere with 
free use of body and limbs and free circulation of blood. 

The foolish dressing of the feet continues all through 
life, and grows worse as our boys and girls approach man- 
and wemanhood. The shoes and stockings in the market 
are nearly all so thin as to be entirely unfit for winter — I 
mean in the more " fashionable " markets. Of course, the 
working people, especially in the country, wear heavy foot 
dressing, and they are thus protected from many attacks of 
sickness. But examine any show-window of shoes, and 
behold how narroiv and thin-soled. The feet that go into 
these are from one-fourth to one inch wider than the shoes. 
If our women will demand thick-soled, wide shoes for 
themselves and children, they will get them. Men are 
learning something along this line. Compare men's shoes 
now with what they were ten years ago. They are from a 
half to one inch wider. 

A principle in clothing should be that it must not bind 
anywhere, especially near a vital organ, around the neck 
or body. How women, and some men, carry their cloth- 
ing from their hips, and bind their waists with it, and stay 
out of the grave so long, is a mystery to many. But the 
aches, pains and doctors' bills it brings is not a mystery to 
any one who knows only a little of the human body. If 
we would only follow nature in this important matter of 
clothing! She clothes animals in robes which are loose, 
light and warm. 

4. There should be a frequent hath of the entire tody. 

The skin is literally covered with eliminating and absorb- 
ing glands — their little mouths opening at every point. 



220 SHORT TALKS. 

These must be kept active, clean and open. To do this 
requires frequent bathing. If we do not work in the dirt 
we are surrounded by dust, and our clothing is constantly 
depositing something over these little mouths. Especially 
if we do not perspire freely — and the sedentary do not — do 
we need frequent bathing. How frequent, depends ou cir- 
cumstances; but not less than twice a week, and for most 
persons a daily bath is better. 

Thomas H. Benton took a bath every morning, and had 
a man rub him until he was all aglow with warmth and 
life. Thomas Jefferson washed his feet every night, and 
to this habit he attributed his good health in old age. If 
we would all follow his example, using water right from 
the well, colds would be reduced one half, and consequently 
pneumonia and consumption decreased. Cold baths, water 
just from the well, are best for healthy persons, and early 
morning the best time to take them. It is not best to im- 
merse the entire body in a cold bath. A good cold bath 
may be had in two quarts of water. Use the hands, not a 
cloth or sponge, to apply the water to the body, and let it 
be done rapidly and with much friction — so rapidly 
that you will be panting-tired in a few minutes. If 
afraid of being chilled, expose, bathe and dry only a part 
of the body at the same time. In this way you can take 
an ice-cold bath with pleasure. Dry the body rapidly as 
you bathe, then with towel or hand rub the damp body 
until it is all red and glowing with warmth and life. Few 
know the luxury of this kind of a cold bath. One a day of 
these will be worth more to you than a whole chist full of 
medicine, and much more than a whole stomach full. 

Water is the great emblem of purity, and also the great 
purifier and cleanser. Do not be afraid of it. It is com- 
ing to be used more and more in the healing art. The 
hydropaths have greatly blessed the world. Formerly, the 
doctors would not allow patients to drink much water, 
especially cold, when sick of a fever. Kow they are more 



SOME HEALTH DIRECTIONS. 221 

natural, and say, " Drink all the good, cool water you want." 
This is right, and in this connection I want to refer to the 
internal bath. It is so arranged that a large quantity of 
water taken into the system is rapidly absorbed, carried 
through 'various parts, and discharged through the kidneys 
and bladder, bringing with it certain poisonous and excre- 
mentitious substances. This gives us the thought: By 
taking into the system large quantities of water we give 
our bodies inside a thorough bath. Then, drink freely 
and copiously of pure water. There is now a very success- 
ful method of treating typhoid fever by having the patient 
drink all the water he can. Might we not use this to pre- 
vent fevers? Is it not the quantity of water we drink when 
we go to the springs for our health, rather than the qual- 
ity, which benefits us? Is it not the water that cures, 
rather than what is in it? Having been to the celebrated 
Hot Springs in Arkansas, and seen their treatment of all 
manner of diseases with ivater, I am convinced if we made 
the same use of our own pure water we would get the same 
results. 

If any one does not want to diink so much water, there 
are other ways of using it to fine advantage. If there is a 
local trouble, soreness, pain, etc., an excellent plan is to 
place a very wet towel over it, and then a dry one over 
that, and let it remain for several hours. The water will 
be absorbed by the skin and will carry away diseased and 
decaying particles, inflammation and pain. 

5. There must be regular exercise of all parts of the body. 

Activity is the law of Nature. She does not know how 
to give purity and strength and life without exercise. 
Whatever in Nature is still, without exercise, is dead or 
dying. Movement is a sign of life. Where life is there 
will be, must be, movement, exercise. Exercise brings 
blood to the surface of the part exercised, makes us breathe 
more deeply and oftener, carries the blood faster and 
faster. Wherever the blood flows freely and rapidly it 



222 SHORT TALKS. 

carries life, for " the blood is the life/' and the dead and 
decaying particles are rapidly replaced by new, live ones. 
This is the philosophy and physiology of exercise. 

So, you see, we must have exercise. It must be regular, 
like our meals, our sleep, and our bathing. Regularity, 
system, is another law of Nature. Some think a spasmodic 
exercise of a few minutes each day, or an hour each week, 
will do. It will not. A good rule is, if your work is con- 
fining, to have one hour each day of free, out-door exercise. 
Let it be something that will use all the body. If you can 
get this exercise and at the same time do something, all 
the better. Cutting wood, hoeing, cutting weeds; all 
these are excellent. If there is nothing at hand to do, 
walk two or three miles briskly, and as you walk stretch 
out the hands horizontally in front of you and swing them 
back of you, still horizontally, until the backs touch; mean- 
time, with the mouth fixed as if whistling, draw in the 
lungs full of air. When they are full, bring the hands 
together vertically over the head, fill the lungs a " little " 
fuller, then drop the hands slowly to the sides while you 
slowly exhale this air. Repeat this five times. This is the 
very finest lung exercise, clear down to the bottom, and one 
taking it once a day in pure air will not die of consump- 
tion, unless inherited. 

There are various apparatus for in-door exercise, but 1 
shall not refer to them here. A better rule is to have, 
every day, out-door exercise, and then you will not need 
these in-door arrangements. If you have not the time, take 
it. It will pay in the long run. Better obey Nature's laws 
and live long and happily than to have your life insured, 
patronize the doctor, suffer many things, and die young. 

6. There must also be mental and bodily rest. 

" To wear out is better than to rust out." This is very 
true if you do something while you wear. But it is better 
neither to wear out, work yourself to the death, nor rust 
out — do nothing until you die of rot, for that is what it is 



SOME HEALTH DIRECTIONS. 223 

to rust out. There is a golden mean. All work will not 
do any better for health than all idleness. There must be 
rest, rest of mind and body. Sleep is its very best form. 
Get eight or nine hours of good, sound sleep and you are 
all right for rest. Change of employment will do for the 
waking hours, such change as will throw our work on 
different faculties of mind and cultivate all. There are 
various expedients forgetting this sleep when troubled with 
sleeplessness. If your wakefulness comes from excessive 
mental work, brain action (the brain is the organ of the 
mind), give the head a few minutes' bath in cold water. 
This will cool the head and brain, the blood will Row from 
the head, and you will soon quiet down so as to go to sleep. 
If sleeplessness comes from general " nervousuess," the 
bath will be good, with probably a hot foot-bath before re- 
tiring. If it comes from pain, cure it. If it comes from 
general " worry," remember " I would have you careful 
for nothing," " cast all your cares on Him who hears the 
young ravens when they cry," and invite sleep by your 
quietness. 

Finally, do not " worry " through the day. Take things 
quietly. Go slow. Take your time. Kemember, all is well 
that ends well. The world was not made in a minute. 
You do not have to do it all to-day. Don't get excited. 
Keep perfectly cool. 

7. There must he a daily movement of the hoivels. 

This can be had by establishing a regular time for it, 
and by exercise, kneading the bowels. If all these fail, do 
not take medicine, but go to our good friend water and 
use the enema, either cool or warm, as you prefer, and do 
not be afraid of using too much. If you should fail to 
follow all these directions, for they are given to keep you 
well, not to cure you, and. actually "get sick," this 
hygienic treatment will cure you. Begin with this large 
enema, get a free movement of bowels, then use water in 
bath and drink freely, and the doctor is not apt to get you. 




PRINCIPLES OF PHRENOLOGY. 



Phrenology claims to explain the powers and faculties of the mind, by 
studying the organization of the brain during life. Its doctrines, briefly stated, 
are: 

1. The brain is the organ or instrument of the mind. 

2. The mind has many faculties, some of which may be stronger or 
weaker than the rest in the same person. 

3. Each faculty or propensity of the mind has its special organ in the brain. 

4. Size of brain, if the quality be good, is the true measure of its power. 

5. The quality or temperament of the organization determines the degree 

of vigor, activity, and endurance of the mental powers. These temperaments 

are indicated by external signs, including the build, complexion, and texture. 

There are three temperaments, know as the Motive, Vital, and Mental. 

(224) 



PRINCIPLES OF PHRENOLOGY. 



225 



The Motive Temperament, corresponding to the Bilious, has a strong, bony 
system, an abundance of muscle, dark, wiry hair, dark eyes, rough, prominent 
features, dark complexion, and a great disposition to locomotive effort. 

The Vital Temperament is evinced by large lungs, a powerful circulatory 
system, and large digestive and assimilating organs, abundance of blood, and 
animal spirits. The form is plump, the limbs rounded and tapering, the com- 
plexion light or florid, with an inclination to take on flesh as age advances. 

The Mental Temperament (formerly called Nervous) depends on the de- 
velopment of the brain and nervous system, and is indicated by mental activity, 
light frame, thin skin, fine hair, delicate features, and large brain as compared 
with the body. 



NAMES AND DEFINITION OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 



See diagram of the head above for 
location of corresponding organs. 

No. 1, Amativeness— The faculty 
of physical love lends attractiveness 
to the opposite sex, and a desire to 
unite in wedlock and enjoy their com- 
pany. Excess : Tendency to licen- 
tiousness. Deficiency : Indifference 
to the other sex. 

A, Conjugal Love— The mono- 
gamic faculty, giving a desire to re- 
ciprocate the love of one in matri- 
mony. Excess : Morbid tenacity of at- 
tachment. Deficiency: Aversion to per- 
manent union; domestic vacillation. 

No. 2, Philoprog-enitiveness— 
Parental love; the parental instinct. 
Disposes one to give due attention to 
offspring and pets. Excess : Idolizing 
children; spoiling them by indulgence. 
Deficiency : Neglect of the young. 

No. 3, Friendship— Adhesive- 
ness; the social feeling; desire for 
companionship ; attachment ; devotion 
to friends. Excess: Undue fondness 
for friends and company. Deficiency : 
Indifference to friendly or social in- 
terests. 

No. 4, Inhabitiveness— It gives 
a desire for a home, place of abode, or 
haven of rest. It also gives rise to 
love of country, and offensive nation- 
alism. Excess: Undue exalting of one's 
own country and home. Deficiency: 
A roving disposition. 

No. 5, Continuity— Gives undi- 



vided and continued attention to one 
subject until it is finished. Excess: 
Prolixity ; absence of mind. Deficien- 
cy: Excessive fondness for variety. 

E, Vitativeness— The love of life ; 
a desire to exist. Excess: Great cling- 
ing to life ; dread of death. Deficiency: 
Indifference to life or the care of it. 

No. 6, Combativeness— Defense; 
courage; force of character; energy 
and indignation; belligerency. Ex- 
cess: A quick, fault-finding, conten- 
tious disposition. Deficiency: Coward- 
ice, inefficiency, tameness. 

No. 7, Destructiveness— Execu- 
tiveness; thoroughness and severity. 
Excess: Cruelty, vindictiveness. De- 
ficiency: Inefficiency; a lack of forti- 
tude under trial. 

No. 8, Alimentiveness— Desire 
for food ; appetite. Excess: Gluttony ; 
intemperance. Deficiency: Want of 
appetite ; indifference, to food. 

No. 9, Acquisitiveness— Desire 
for property ; the principal element in 
industry, economy. Excess: Selfish- 
ness; avarice; covetousness, Deficien- 
cy : Want of economy; wastefulness; 
prodigality, 

No. 10, Secretiveness- Conceal- 
ment; policy; the conservative prin- 
ciple. Misdirected, or in Excess, it is 
a prime element in hypocrisy, double- 
dealing, and evasion. Deficiency : 
Want of reserve, or proper tact; 
policy; concealment. 



226 



SHORT TALKS. 



No. 11, Cautiousness— Fear ; ap- 
prehension of danger. Excess : Cow- 
ardice; timidity. Deficiency : Heedless- 
ness; recklessness; imprudent haste. 

No. 12, Approbativeness— The 
desire to please, to gain admiration 
and popularity. This faculty gives to 
the person a desire to cultivate the 
amenities of social intercourse. Excess: 
Vanity; undue sensitiveness to praise 
or blame. Deficiency: Disregard of 
the opinions of others. 

No. 13, Self-Esteem— Dignity; 
governing power; independence. Ex- 
cess : Arrogance; imperiousness. De- 
ficiency : Self-distrust and deprecia- 
tion ; a lack of self-assurance. 

No. 14, Firmness— Steadiness ; 
perseverance; decision; tenacity of 
purpose. Excess: Stubbornness; ob- 
stinacy. Deficiency: Instability; un- 
steadiness. 

No. 15, Conscientiousness- 
Justice; moral sentiment; self-exami- 
nation: integrity; scrupulousness in 
matters of duty and obligation. Ex- 
cess : Censoriousness; great scrupu- 
lousness; self-condemnation, and un- 
due censure of others. Deficiency' 
Indifference to right or wrong ; equivo- 
cation. 

No. 16, Hope— Looks to the fut- 
ure; buoys the mind with enthusiastic 
expectations. In Excess, renders one 
visionary and extravagant in expecta- 
tion. Deficient : Gives the tendency 
to despondency and gloom. 

No. 17, Spirituality— Faith, trust, 
and belief in the immortal and invisi- 
ble. Excess: Superstition; fanati- 
cism; Deficiency: Skepticism; in- 
credulity. 

No. 18, Veneration— Reverence 
for Deity; desire to worship; also im- 
parts deference for superiors, and 
respect for whatever is ancient or 
honorable. Excess : Idolatry ; undue 
deference to persons. Deficiency: 
Disregard for things sacred, and for 
the aged and venerable. 

No. 19, Benevolence— The desire 
to do good; tenderness; sympathy; 



liberality and philanthropy. Excess: 
Morbid generosity. Deficiency: Self- 
ishness; indiffereuce to the wants of 
others; lack of sympathy. 

No. 20, Constructiveness— The 
mechanical and tool-using faculty. It 
aids in the construction of garments, 
houses, ships, schemes, and in all man- 
ual or mental dexterity. Excess: At- 
tempting impossibilities, impractical 
contrivances. Deficiency: Inability to 
use tools; no mechanical skill or apti- 
tude. 

No. 21, Ideality— The esthetic 
faculty, or love of the beautiful and 
perfect. It is essential in literature, 
the arts, and all that is refining. Ex- 
cess: Fastidiousness; romance ; dream- 
iness. Deficiency: Lack of taste. 

B, Sublimity— May also be called 
an organ of the imagination. The 
stupendous in nature or art excites 
this faculty highly. In Excess, it leads 
to exaggeration. Deficient: It shows 
inability to appreciate the grand or 
majestic. 

No. 22, Imitation— The copying 
instinct. It adapts one to society by 
copying manners. It helps the actor 
in representing character, and is a 
chief channel for obtaining knowledge 
and benefit from surrounding influ- 
ences. Excess: Mimicry; servile imi- 
tation. Deficiency: Oddity; eccen- 
tricity. 

No. 23, Mirthfulness— Wit; 
humor; love of fun. Excess: Improper 
ridicule of subjects. Deficiency: Ex- 
cessive sedateness; indifference to wit 
and humor. 

No. 24, Individuality— Observa- 
tion; desire to see things and identify 
points of thought; memory of objects. 
Excess: Prying curiosity and inquisi- 
tiveness. Deficiency: Dullness of ob- 
servation. 

No. 25, Form— Gives width be- 
tween the eyes, and memory of coun- 
tenances, and the shapes of things. It 
has to do with working by the eye. 
Excess: Undue sensitiveness to want 
of harmony in shapes. Deficiency: 



PRINCIPLES OF PHRENOLOGY. 



227 



Forgets faces and forms; can not cut 
or draw well. 

No. 26, Size— Power to measure 
distances and quantities by the eye. 
Excess: A constant comparison of size 
and proportion. Deficiency: Inability 
to estimate size and distance. 

No. 27, Weight— Adapts man to 
the laws of gravity, whereby he walks 
erect, rides a horse, balances and 
judges of the weight of things. Ex- 
cess: Disposition to climb and attempt 
hazardous feats of balancing. De- 
ficiency: Inability to judge of the per- 
pendicular, or to keep the center of 
gravity. 

No. 28, Color— This faculty en- 
ables us to discriminate hues and re- 
member colors. Excess: Great fond- 
ness for colors ; fastidious criticism of 
tints. Deficiency: Inability to distin- 
guish colors; " color blindness." 

No. 29, Order— Method; arrange- 
ment; system; neatness; Excess: 
Undue neatness. Deficiency : Slov- 
enliness ; disorder and general irregu- 
larity. 

No. 30, Calculation— The power 
to enumerate, reckon, etc. Excess: 
Disposition to count and "reckon" 
everything. Deficiency : Lack of 
talent in relations of numbers; can not 
add, multiply, etc. 

No. 31, Locality— The exploring 
faculty; love of travel, and ability to 
remember places. Excess : An un- 
settled, roving disposition. Deficiency: 
Poor memory of places; liability to 
lose the way. 

No. 32, Eventuality— The his- 
toric faculty. Some people can relate 
occurrences, and have a good memory. 
Excess : Tedious rela tion of facts and 
stories. Deficiency : Poor memory of 
events. 

No. 33, Time,— Gives a conscious- 
ness of duration; tells the time of day; 
aids the memory with dates and music. 
Excess: Undue particularity in mat- 
ters relating to time. Deficiency: 
Fails to remember dates or keep time. 



No. 34, Tune— The musical in- 
stinct; ability to distinguish and re- 
member musical sounds. Excess: 
Disposition to sing, whistle, or play at 
improper times. Deficiency: Inability 
to appreciate music. 

No. 35, Langnage— Located in 
the brain above and behind the eye, 
and when large, forces the eye for- 
ward and downward, forming a sack, 
as it were, under it; when organ 
small, the eye appears to be sunken in 
the head. Excess: Redundancy of 
words ; more words than thoughts or 
ideas; garrulity. Deficiency: Lack 
of verbal expression. 

No. 36, Casuality— The ability 
to comprehend principles, and to think 
abstractly; to understand the why and 
wherefore of subjects and things. Ex- 
cess: Too much theorizing and im- 
practicable philosophy. Deficiency: 
Weakness of judgment; inability to 
think, plan, or reason. 

No. 37, Comparison— The ana- 
lyzing, illustrating, comparin g faculty ; 
enables one to use figures of speech, 
similes, proverbs, etc. Excess: Cap- 
tious criticism. Deficiency: Inability 
to reason by analogy. 

C, Human Nature— The power 
to discern motives, character, and 
qualities of strangers. Excess: In- 
tense personal prejudice; offensive 
criticism of character. Deficiency: 
Indiscriminating confidence. 

D, Suavity— Agreeableness ; ten- 
dency to speak and act in a mellow, 
persuasive manner. Excess: Affec- 
tation; blarney. Deficiency: "Want 
of ease of manner. 

The Bust— The student will be 
greatly aided in his study of Phrenol- 
ogy by the use of a good bust, which 
shows the location and relation of all 
the organs and their groupings, more 
accurately than the3' can be presented 
on a flat surface, or as in the head 
which illustrates this article. 



Brain and Mind 




general principles. 

The Temperaments. 

Structure op tee Brain and iSktjtj,. 

Classification op the Faculties. 

The Selfish Organs. 

The Intellect. 

The Semi-Intellectual Faculties. 

The Organs op the Social Functions. 

The Selfish Sentiments. 

The Moral and Religious Sentiments 



OR, MENTAL SCIENCE CONSIDERED V 
ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES 01 
PHRENOLOGY AND IN RELATION TC 
MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 

By H. S. Drayton, A.M., M.D.. and Jam.«» 
McNeill, A.B. Illustrated with over Oyie 
Hundred Portraits and Diagrams. $i,5C. 

The authors state in their preface : " In pre- 
paring this volume it has been the aim to 
meet an existing want, viz : that of a treatise 
which not only gives the reader a complete 
view of the system of mental science known 
as Phrenology, but also exhibits its relation to 
Anatomy and Physiology, as those sciences are 
represented to day by standard authority.'" 

The following, from the Table of Contents, 
shows the scope and character of the >vork : 
How to Examine Heads. 
How Character is Manifested 
The Action op the Faculties. 
The Relation op Phrenology /o Meta- 
physics and Education. 
Vziue op Phrenology as an Art. 
Phrenology and Physiology. 
Objections and Confirmations by thk 

Physiologists. 
Phrenology in General Literature. 



IN~crb±oes of -tlh-e HPnress. 



objections on the side of Faith by those 
admitted as existing on the side of 
Sight, will avail as well in one case as 
in the other. We will only add, the 
above work is, without doubt, the best 
popular presentation of the science 
which has yet been made. It confines 
itself strictly to facts, and is not writ- 
ten in the interest of any pet " theory. 1 ' 
It is made very interesting by its 
copious illustrations, pictorial and nar- 
rative, and the whole is brought down 
to the latest information on this curi- 
ous and suggestive department of 
knowledge.— Christian Intelligencer. 

As far as a comprehensive view of the 
teachings of Combe can be embodied 
into a system that the popular mind 
can understand, this book is as satis- 
factory an exposition of its kind as has 
yet been published. The definitions ar< 
clear, exhaustive, and spirited. — Phila- 
delphia Enquirer. 

In style and treatment it is adapted to the general reader, abounds witl 
valuable instruction expressed in clear, practical terms, and the work constitute* 
by far the best Text-book on Phrenology published, and is adapted to both private 
and class study. 

The illustrations of the Special Organs and Faculties are for the most pari 
from portraits of men and women whose characters are known, and great pains 
have been taken to exemplify with accuracy the significance of the text in eaci 
case. For the student of human nature and character the work is of the highesl 
v *'ue. 

1 1 is printed on fine paper, and substantially bound in ext^ cloth, by i— fl» 
postoaid. on receiot of price* $1.50. Address. 

Fowler <& Wells Co., Publishers, 27 East 21st Si, New York, 



Phrenology is no longer a thinglaugh- 
•d at. The scientific researches of the 
ast twenty years have demonstrated 
the fearful and wonderful complication 
of matter, not only with mind, but with 
what we call moral qualities. Thereby, 
we believe, the divine origin of "our 
frame 11 has been newly illustrated, and 
the Scriptural psychology confirmed ; 
and in the Phrenological Chart we are 
disposed to find a species of " urim and 
thummim," revealing, if not the Crea- 
tor's will concerning us, at least His 
revelation of essential character. One 
thing is certain, that the discoveries 
of physical science must ere long force 
all men to the single alternative of Cal- 
vinism or Atheism. When they see 
that God has writteAHimself sovereign, 
a.bs> >lute, and predestinating, on the 
records of His creation, they will be 
ready to find His writing as clearly in 
the Word; and the analogical argu- 
ment, meeting the difficulties and the 



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one's faculties, temperaments, and education best adapt him. The young 
man or woman who makes the right selection is guaranteed thereby a 
happy and successful career. What a contrast between one who has se- 
lected rightly and one who has not; one is a blessing to himself, his family, 
and the world; the other, either a machine-like workman, having no inter- 
est in what he is doing, or is a load to his friends and a burden on the 
community. Marty people with talents, the exercise of which would place 
them in the front rank of some of the higher callings, are living in ob- 
scurity, filling some menial place, which they dropped into by chance or 
accident, ignorant of the talents with which God has endowed them. Let 
every man, woman, and youth read this book and profit by it, and under- 
take only that which they can do best. 

The author was fully qualified for his task, having been engaged 
wholly and actively as editor and lecturer, and in the practical application 
of mental science to every-day life for forty years, affording opportunities 
for making the fullest observations and original investigations on the hu- 
man mind and its capacity. 

The book is handsomely bound in extra muslin, with gilt and ink 
'tamps. Price, by mail, postpaid, $1.50. Address 

Fowler & Wells Co., Publishers. 27 East 21st St., New York. 



NEW PHYSIOGNOMY; 






OB, SIGNS OF CHARACTER. 

A.s manifested in Temperament and External Forms, and especially 
* tlie Human Face Divine. By SAMUEL R. WELLS. 

A comprehensive, thorough, and practical work, in 
which all that is known on the subject is Systemized, 
Explained, Illustrated, and Applied. Physiognomy is 
shown to be no mere fanciful speculation, but a con- 
sistent and well-considered system of Character-read- 
ing, based on the established truths of Physiology and 
Phrenology, and confirmed by Ethnology, as well as 
by the peculiarities of individuals. It is no abstraction, 
but something to be made useful; something to be 
practiced by everybody and in all places, and made an 
efficient help in that noblest of all studies — Man. It is readily understood 
and as readily applied. The following are some of the leading topics dis- 
cussed and explained : 



9J 




Physiognomy Jipplied — To Marriage, 
to training Children, to Personal Improve- 
ment, to Business, t j Insanity and Idiocy, 
to Health and Disease, to Classes and Pro- 
fessions, and to Character-Reading gen- 
erally. Utility of Physiognomy. 

minimal Types. — Grades of Intelligence, 
Instinct, and Reason — Animal Heads and 
Animal Types among Men. 

Graphomancy .— Character revealed in 
Hand- writing, with Specimens — Palmistry. 
" Line of Life " in the human hand. 

Character-Reading.— Move than a hun- 
dred noted Men and Women introduced— 
What Physiognomy says of them. 

The Great Secret. — How to be Healthy 
and How to be Beautiful — Mental Cosmet- 
ics — very interesting, very useful. 

Jlristotle and St. Paul. — A Model Head 
— Views of Life — Illustrative Anecdotes — 
Detecting a Rogue by his Face. 

No one can read this Book without interest, without real profit. " Knowl- 
edge is power/' and this is emphatically true of a knowledge of men— of 
fiuman character. He who has it is "master of the situation;" and anybody 
may have it who will, and find in it the " secret of success" and the road to 
the largest personal improvement. 

Price, in one large Volume, of nearly 800 pages, and more than 1,000 en- 
gravings, on toned paper, handsomely bound in embossed muslin, $5 ; in heavy 
calf, marbled edges, |8; Turkey morocco, full gilt, $10. 

Agents do weU canvassing foi this work. Address 

Fowler & Wells Co, Publishers, 27 East 21st St., New York. 



Previous Systems given, including 
kose of all ancient and modern writers. 
General Principles of Physiognomy, or 
*ie Physiological laws on which character- 
heading is and must be based. 

Temper anient s, — The Ancient Doctrines 
— Spurzheim's Description — The new Clas- 
sification now in use. 

Practical Physiognomy . — G eneral 
Forms of Faces— The Eyes, the Mouth, the 
Nose, the Chin, the Jaws and Teeth, the 
Cheeks, the Forehead, the Hair and Beard, 
the Complexion, the Neck and Ears, the 
Hands and Feet, the Voice, the Walk, the 
•<augh, the Mode of Shaking Hands, Dress, 

lc., with illustrations. 

Ethnology,— -The Races, including the 

,'aucasian,;. the North American Indians, 

tb ; Mongolian, the Malay, and the African, 

With their numerous subdivisions; also 

1 lational Types, each illustrated. 



-THE 



Human I Nature I Library. 

Each number is complete in itself and usually devoted to 

a single subject. 



No. 1. Self-Reliance ; or, Self- 
Esteem as an Element in Human 
Character, its uses and culture, 
lilust. Nelson Sizer. 10c. 

No. 2. Phrenology; its Prin- 
ciples, Proofs etc. Prof. J F. 
Tracey. 20 illus 10c. 

No. 3. Physical Factors in 
Character; or. The Influence of 
Temperament. H. S. Drayton, 
M.D. Illust. 10c. 

No 4. The Choice of Occupa- 
tion; or, My Right Place in Life, 
and How to Find it. Nelson Sizer. 
10c. 

No. 5. The Servant Question. 
Hints on the Choosing and Man- 
agement of Servants. H. S. Dray- 
ton. 10c 

No. 6. Inventive Genius ; or, 
Constructiveness the Basis of Civ- 
ilization and Progress. Prof. Nel- 
son Sizer. 10c. 

No. 7. Integrity or Consci- 
entiousness— Its Nature and its 
Influence. H. S Drayton. 10c. 

No. 8. Who Should Marry ; 
Right Selection in Marriage. The 
How and the Why. What tem- 
peraments and mental character- 
istics should unite in wedlock. 
Illust. Nelson Sizer. 10c. 

No. 9. A Debate Among the 
Mental Faculties. Prof. Nelson 
Sizer. 10c. 

No. 10. The Will ; Its Nature 
and Education. J. W. Shull. 10c. 



Subscription Price, 30c. for four Nos,, or 
mail, postpaid. Address 



No. 11. Ambition ; or, Appro- 
bativeness as a Factor in Charac- 
ter. Prof. Nelson Sizer. 10c. 

No. 12. A Complete Man; 
How to Educate for Life. H. S. 
Drayton, M.D. 10c. 

No 13. Addresses delivered at 
the close of the annual session of 
the American Institute of Phren- 
ology, 1890. 10c. 

No 14. Faculty and Brain 
Organism. Bernard Hollander. 
To prove that separate Psycholog- 
ical Functions require separate 
Physiological Organisms. 10c. 

No. 15. Resemblance to Par- 
ents, and How to Judge It. Nei- 
son Sizer. 10c. 

No. 16. Self-Study Essential 
to Mental Improvement and I )» 
velopment and to Personal Sue- 
cess. Dr. H. S. Drayton. 10c. 

No. 17. The Uses of Mental 
Science and papers read at the 
close of the class of 1890 in the 
Am. Institute of Phrenology. 10c. 

No. 18. Getting Married ami 
Keeping Married— How to Do It. 
By One Who Has Done Both. 10c. 

No. 19. Character Reading 
from Photographs ; How to Do 
It. Fully Illustrated. By Nelson 
Sizer. 10c. Ready in July, 

No. 20. The Perceptive Fac- 
ulties. Their Use and Training ; 
showing how to see things. By Nel- 
son Sizer. 10c. Ready in October. 

10c, each by 



Fowler & Wells Co., Publishers, 27 East 21st St., New York. 



HOW TO LEARN PHRENOLOGY. 



We are frequently asked: In wh : way can a practical knowledge oi 
Phrenology be obtained? In answering this we must say, that the best 
results can be obtained by taking a thorough course of instruction at the 
American Institute of Phrenology; but where this is not practical, the 
published textbooks on the subject should be carefully studied. To meet 
the wants of those who wish to pursue the subject personally and become 
familiar with the application of the subject to the various sides of life, we 
have ai ranged the following list of books, called 



THE STUDENT'S SEX: 



Bruin and Mind ; or, Mental Sci- 
ence Considered in Accordance 
with the Principles of Phrenology 
and in Relation to Modern Physi- 
ology. Illustrated. By H. S. 
Drayton, A. M., M. D., and Jas. 
McNiel, A. M. $1.50. 

Forty Years in Phrenology; Em- 
bracing Recollections of History, 
Anecdotes, and Experience.$i.5o. 

Mow to Read Character. A New 

Illustrated Handbook of Phre- 
nology and Physiognomy, for stu- 
dents and examiners, with a Chart 
for recording the sizes of the 
different organs of the brain in 
the delineation of character; with 
apward of one hundred and 
seventy engravings. $1.25. 

Popular Physiology. A Familiar 
Exposition of the Structures, 
Functions, and Relations of the 
Human System and the preser- 
vation of health. $1.00. 

The Phrenological Bust, show- 
ing the location of each of the 
Organs. Large size. $1.00. 



New Physiognomy; or, Signs ot 
Character, as manifested through 
temperament and external forms, 
and especially in the " Human 
Face Divine. With more tha# 
one thousand illustrations . f 5.00 

Choice of Pursuits ; or, What to 
do and Why. Describing seventy- 
five trades and professions, i.nd 
the temperaments and talent* 
required for each. Also, how to 
educate on phrenological princi- 
ples — each man for his proper 
work; together with portraits ?.nd 
biographies of many successful 
thinkers and workers. $2.00, 

Constitution of Man; Considered 
in relation to external objects. 
The only authorized American 
edition. With twenty engravings 
and a portrait of the author. $1,25. 

Heads and Faces and How to 

study them. A manual of Phre- 
nology and physiognomy for the 
people. By Nelson Sizer and 
H. S. Drayton. Oct., paper^oc. 



This Hst is commended to those who wish to pursue the subject at home, 
and to those who propose to attend the Institute. 

Either of the above will be sent on receipt of price, or the complete 
"Student's Set," amounting to $14.65, will be sent by express fol 
$10.00. Address, 



Fowler & Wells Co, Publishers, 27 East 21st St, New York. 



Men and Women Differ in Character. 




No. 1. 
No. 2. 
No. 3. 
No. 4. 



[Portraits from Life in " Heads and Faces."] 
James Parton. No. 5. Emperor Paul of Russia. No. 9. 

A. M Rice. No. 6. George Eliot. No. 10. 

Wni. M. Evarts. No. 7. King Frederick the Strong. No. 11 

General Wisewell. No. 8. Prof. George Bush. 



General Napier. 
Otho the Great 
African. 



IF YOU WANT SOMETHING 

that will interest you more than anything you have ever read and enable 
you to understand all the differences in people at a glance, by the " Signs 
of Character," send for a copy of 

HEADS AND FACES ; How to Study Them. 

A new Manual of Character Reading for the people, by Prof. Nelson 
Sizer, the Examiner in the phreno]ogical office of Fowler & Wells Co., 
New York, and H. S. Drayton, M.D., Editor of the Phrenological 
Journal. The authors know what they are writing about, Prof. Sizer 
having devoted nearly fifty years almost exclusively to the reading of 
character and he here lays down the rules employed by him in his pro- 
fessional work. It will show you how to read people as you would a 
book, and to see if they are inclined to be good, upright, honest, true, kind, 
charitable, loving - , joyous, happy and trustworthy people, such as you 
would like to know. 

A knowledge of Human Nature would save many disappointments in 
social and business life. 

This is the most comprehensive and popular work ever published for 
the price, 25,000 copies having been sold the first year. Contains 200 large 
octavo pages and 250 portraits. Send for it and study the people you see 
and your own character. If you are not satisfied after examining the 
book, you may return it, in good condition, and money will be re- 
turned to you. 

We will send it carefully by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price, 40 cents, 
In paper, or $1 in cloth binding. Agents wanted. Address 

Fowler & "Wells Co, Publishers, 27 East 21st St., New York. 



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